Putin is heir to Russia’s long disinformation experience
MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin doesn’t tweet and he claims he doesn’t have a smartphone. At first sight, the Russian president’s reluctance to adopt the hyperconnected world’s technology might seem at odds with the widespread belief that he signed off on a campaign to undermine the United States via social media.
But he has something likely more important than gadgets — long experience in the KGB and its post-Soviet successor.
From the czarist secret police to the present, Russian operatives have adroitly exploited humans’ biases and their capacity to believe the unlikely. The elaborate campaign of bogus identities and inflammatory statements alleged in last week’s U.S. indictment of 13 Russians used new technology and platforms, but drew on a century-old spirit.
An early and especially notorious example was the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a pamphlet that purported to be the minutes of a secret meeting of Jewish leaders to plot world domination. First appearing in 1903, its origins are open to debate, but many scholars suggest it was commissioned by Okhranka, the czarist secret police, and spread by them to argue against growing calls for modernizing Russia.