The cold war has never really ended. Although Russian and American politicians alike speak about "relaxing" the relations between these two countries, that does not seem to be happening. Russians never really went away, their influence, the influence of the KGB and Russian counterintelligence in general, is perhaps more evident today than ever.
The Manipulated States of America
Donald Trump, the current president of the United States and the most talked about figure in the world, has been called a Russian puppet by the media, countless times. Russians were openly accused of meddling with the American elections, helping their alleged puppet, Trump, get into the White House.
The Russians may have meddled with the election, but not to support any candidate in particular, but to further divide an already divided nation. The newest Facebook scandal just proves this.
In a blog post written by Facebook's Chief Security Officer, Alex Stamos, the company disclosed that it had identified more than $100.000 worth of ads, banning nearly 500 fake accounts in the process. This in itself, isn't anything new -- spammers have always tried to profit from social media, but these accounts were Russian and, Stamos writes, focused on "amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum — touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights."
Furthermore, he adds that the ads did not "reference the US presidential election, voting or a particular candidate." Judging by this, Russians have indeed meddled with the US presidential election and not to support any given candidate -- they were using standard counterintelligence tactics.
A former KGB agent, Yuri Bezmenov, spoke about this in great detail, decades ago:
How will the media react?
How will the American media react to this? The information that Facebook disclosed disrupts the "Trump is a Russian puppet" narrative, so it remains to be seen how will the mainstream (left-leaning) media that the POTUS loves to call "fake news" react to this.
If they keep insisting on their narrative and shoving it downs peoples' throats, a push back from the general public might happen yet again, and they might lose all of their decaying credibility. Ironically, the aggressive far-right might profit from this more than anyone else.
And, most importantly, if the media spins this story into something they can fit into their narrative, the societal division in the United States will perhaps be even greater than during the election year. If that happens, the Russian counterintelligence will have another victory under its belt.
