The Russian meddling in the 2016 election was a deeply damaging attack on the foundations of American democracy that our country is still failing to adequately grapple with.
Our president refuses to discuss the problem when he isn’t just outright denying that it happened, and by all accounts we seem vulnerable and poised to take another hit in the upcoming mid-term elections. Vladimir Putin is sowing division and conflict around the world in the hopes of finally upending the liberal world order, and our leaders are asleep at the wheel.
The Kremlin’s army of trolls continues to pump out a steady stream of toxic misinformation and propaganda, warping the minds of voters and making it harder for democracies around the world to foster an informed electorate. It’s a vile, nihilistic operation whose only beneficiaries are Putin and his billionaire oligarch cronies.
Now, it appears someone has finally struck a blow against the trolls. The Moscow Times reports that an arsonist has hit the “Internet Research Agency” with a “Molotov cocktail” homemade firebomb.
The “Internet Research Agency” is the public name for St. Petersburg’s infamous “troll factory” and is designed to give it some modicum of credibility and deniability. It’s the same organization that Special Counsel Robert Mueller previously charged with interfering in the 2016 election.
A website run by the trolls shared footage that purportedly shows the attack. While it’s possible that the arsonist was simply someone fed up with the Kremlin’s constant lies, one can’t rule out that it was staged by the trolls themselves for some as-yet-unrevealed purpose.
Things are rarely what they seem when they are issued by Russian media and time will tell what the consequences of this attack end up being. In the meantime, enjoy the footage.
