Report: Russia-based influence campaign spanned six years

A file photo shows the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower, center, and St. Basil’s Cathedral, left, reflected in rain water puddles in the empty Red Square during the evening rush hour in Moscow, Russia. A Kremlin-linked social media disinformation operation, dubbed ‘Secondary Infektion’ by researchers, that sought to interfere with the 2016 US election has continued its work to divide and discredit Western democracies, a new report finds – but its effectiveness has been limited by its own cautious tactics. While the group’s work has slowed, it was operational as of 2020. — AP

A Russia-based group has for the last six years peddled forged documents and used fake social-media accounts in an effort to influence elections and divide critics in the West, while mostly avoiding efforts to detect such activity, according to an exhaustive report on the operation released on June 16.

Graphika, the social-media analytics company that produced the 150-page report, said the group created documents, tweets and blogs attributed to such well-known political leaders as Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, then seeded them into a variety of social-media forums in order to stoke division.