Russia tunnels into US faultlines

Anyone who has paid attention to coverage of the Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election already believes the Russians did what they could to get Donald Trump elected. The detail of what was done has been less examined. The 37 pages of special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment contain a meticulous account of the workings of a highly professional propaganda or lobbying organisation.

The “Internet Research Agency” in St Petersburg is more generally known as the Russian “troll factory”, but it spent its multimillion-dollar budget on much more than simple trolling.

Operatives were sent around the US to gather intelligence and to make contact with social and political activists. It was from US political activists that they received the advice to target “purple” swing states, something that was essential to the success of the campaign.

Back in St Petersburg, there were departments for data analysis, search-engine optimisation, information technology and graphics, as well as the keyboard warriors who formed the shock troops of their assault on US politics.

Mueller’s indictment claims there were 80 full-time employees working on social media accounts, all pretending to be US citizens and using VPN technology to appear to be posting from inside the US.

In St Petersburg they worked shifts that were designed to simulate time zones in the continental US and kept up with US public holidays. They concentrated on Facebook, where they set up groups with names designed to exploit and inflame the divisions in US society, so that “United Muslims of America” and “The Army of Jesus” were both Russian front organisations.

The real shock of the Mueller indictment is not that the Russians exploited huge weaknesses in the US political system — what else would a hostile power try to do? — but that the weaknesses existed and are now so easy and relatively cheap for anyone to exploit.