ALINA POLYAKOVA
Vladimir Putin, Russia’s longest-serving ruler since Joseph Stalin, surprised no i amongst his landslide re-election on Sunday. While his victory, inward which he claimed 73.9 per centum of the vote according to state-run exit polls, was a foregone conclusion, the Kremlin was reportedly anxious most turnout, together with conducted an elaborate, well-financed get-out-the-vote campaign. For an authoritarian regime inward which election results together with turnout are pre-ordained, such concerns may seem odd. But fifty-fifty inward Russia’s “managed democracy,” appearances all the same matter, together with the Kremlin needed to acquaint believably high levels of back upwards to ensure Putin’s mandate. Shortly later polling centers shut on Dominicus night, Putin appeared to live on target to accomplish the desired 65 per centum turnout. But fifty-fifty to a greater extent than of import for Putin is that this election marked the culmination of his nearly two-decades-long projection to command data inward Russian Federation together with manipulate Russian society. Now, Putin has proven beyond whatever dubiety that the Russian Federation he has built is his together with his alone. Putin began his long-running disinformation drive when he came to ability inward 2000, taking over Russia’s independent idiot box channels together with bringing the oligarchs who owned them to heel or ousting them from the country. Since then, he has chipped away at gratuitous expression, political dissent, together with independent voices i newspaper, i website, together with i blogger at a time. Each novel amendment to the police declaring NGOs equally unusual agents together with undesirables, each assassination of a journalist or political leader who went besides far, together with each expansion of what constitutes “extremist” content online (and thus, plain of study to censorship) brought Putin i measuring closer to this day.
Before the Kremlin unleashed its notorious Internet Research Agency (IRA) troll mill on the 2016 U.S. elections, it was busy testing its arsenal of disinformation tools on Russians. Moscow’s specific focus on online operations began later the 2011 protests against election fraud, which brought 100,000Russians to the streets of Moscow. The protests coincided amongst Putin’s render to the presidency inward 2012 next a brief stint equally prime number minister. Reports propose that it was at this indicate that the Kremlin launched what eventually became the IRA. As a recent indictment released past times Special Counsel Robert Mueller detailed, the IRA’s elite “American unit” employed to a greater extent than than fourscore people. But this unusual unit of measurement was a pocket-size portion of a much bigger Russian-language influence performance aimed, starting fourth dimension together with foremost, at the domestic Russian population.
In 2015, when an surreptitious Russian investigative reporter infiltrated the IRA, it employed about 400 individuals. Today, it has ballooned to almost 1,000 employees together with has moved to a novel portion three times the size of its master copy space. This expansion was planned inward training for the March presidential elections. In the lead-up to the vote, the 900 or so Russian trolls, state-owned media outlets, together with authorities officials, together deployed a coordinated together with structured disinformation campaign. It had several themes: to deny whatever allegations of election fraud, to scare or entice Russians into voting to bolster turnout, together with to blame all signs of dissent or corruption on the West together with the Russian opposition (which, the Kremlin believes, the West controls).
On March 15, a user of the pop messaging app Telegram claiming to live an employee of the Russian-language department of the IRA published what he claimed were instructions on how to answer to inevitable allegations of election fraud. The instructions, shared on Telegram, included links to articles already created past times the IRA to live used equally sources when posting comments. Among other things, the instructions directed the troll factory’s employees to disseminate on social media a rumor that the West has been planning to interfere inward the Russian elections, a claim previously made past times the Russian unusual ministry. On election day, Interfax, a state-owned media organization, reported that the Central Elections Commission had prevented a cyberattack from xv countries. No evidence of the assault was provided.
While social-media trolls amplified disinformation narratives aimed at legitimizing the brazenly illegitimate election, Russian television—the existent powerhouse of the state’s propaganda machine—pushed difficult to teach voters to the polls. In Crimea, where residents voted inward Russia’s election for the starting fourth dimension time since its armed services takeover of the peninsula inward 2014, fearfulness mongering together with conspiracy theories dominated the airwaves. As the Washington Post reported, the newly outfitted authorities idiot box channels warned viewers that high turnout was the only thing protecting the Russian people from annihilation past times the West. Elsewhere inward Russia, regional officials sought to lure residents to vote past times staging festivals together with raffles for iPhones. Local businesses sold discounted habiliment close polling stations, together with some localities gave away gratuitous food, creating a holiday-like atmosphere. Some Russians went to extreme lengths to maximize their chances of winning the freebies. All of Russian Federation seemed to live plastered inward pro-Putin billboards together with banners, amongst some of them fifty-fifty appearing inward polling stations(which is against Russian law).
Working inward unison to amplify together with disseminate the same messages through state-run television, social media, together with authorities officials, the Kremlin reached its desired benchmarks. It also accomplished something else, something mayhap fifty-fifty to a greater extent than of import to Putin: despite recent protests against corruption across Russian Federation together with brazen instances of voter fraud, no demonstrations took place.
Basking inward the glow of a pre-ordained “victory,” Putin must live pleased. Not but because he’ll live Russia’s president i time again—a prospect he seemed bored amongst during his nonexistent re-election campaign. Rather, he’s no dubiety thrilled because his diligent efforts to command data inward Russian Federation remove keep finally blossomed. For Putin, this is the existent victory.
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