Hacked emails reveal Russian plot to spread disinformation in Ukraine
British MP who reviewed the documents says Kremlin may have used the same tactics in the 2016 U.S. election
A cache of Russian emails has revealed details about an influence campaign the Kremlin ran in Ukraine in 2014, the year Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula.
Bob Seely, a British Conservative MP and Russia expert who has reviewed the leaked documents, said he believes there's reason to think Russia is continuing to export the same tactics of disinformation it used in Ukraine in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
The campaign is aimed at undermining state control. It's effectively creating a sense of protest and upheaval, which is then captured on friendly media and friendly social media.- Bob Seely, British MP and co-author of a report on how the Kremlin launched a campaign of 'politicized warfare' in Ukraine
"I think they reveal a snapshot of subversion and how the Kremlin runs its politicized warfare," Seely told As It Happens host Carol Off.
"The campaign is aimed at undermining [Ukrainian] state control. So it's getting protesters out — often paid protesters. It's effectively creating a sense of protest and upheaval, which is then captured on friendly media and friendly social media. So it's showing the breakdown of Ukranian authority, largely staged."
Seely outlines a number of tactics the Kremlin considered paying for to undermine local authorities in Ukraine, including: staging protests, trolling pro-Ukrainian activists and organizers online — often with bots — and directing low-level violence and vandalism at specific individuals.
"If you look at the emails en masse, a significant attempt was made to destabilize Odessa, and that failed," he said, adding that it marked a critical failure by Russia to overtake the country.
"I think if Odessa had been taken, then Ukraine would have found it very difficult to fight a proxy war in the east of the country, and the southwest as well."
Seely suggests that Russia's subversive activities in Ukraine may have served as a sort of blueprint for political warfare elsewhere since.
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"I think the evidence of Brexit manipulation is not there," he said. "[But] what we have seen from the Senate intelligence committee and elsewhere is highly-significant manipulation in the last U.S. presidential elections."
"And I think what we're going to have in the next year [or] two is some really-detailed evidence of how this new form of politicized warfare works."
That evidence may begin with Seely's own full report, which he says will be released in full this May.
"I think the Robert Mueller report, when it comes out, will be devastating," he said referring to the U.S. special prosecutor tasked with investigating Russian interference in the last presidential election.
"And I think there will be other works in the next year or two as well."
Written by Kevin Ball. Interview produced by Julian Uzielli.