Ukraine has exposed Trump’s true identity: as a vandal, an autocrat, a gangster and a fool; The Guardian, April 25, 2025

 Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian; Ukraine has exposed Trump’s true identity: as a vandal, an autocrat, a gangster and a fool

"Whether Trump succeeds in making Kyiv buckle or not, the new reality is clear. The US president is taking an axe to an international order constructed in the aftermath of a bloody world war, a system that has held, however imperfectly, since 1945. A central tenet of that order was that big states could not simply swallow up smaller ones, that unprovoked aggression and conquest would no longer be allowed to stand. Yet here is Trump bent on rewarding just such an act of conquest, not simply acquiescing in Putin’s land grab in Ukraine but conferring on it the legitimacy of approval by the world’s most powerful nation.

Note how he speaks as if Putin had every right to seize the territory of his neighbour. Asked this week what concessions, if any, he had extracted from Moscow, Trump replied that Putin’s willingness to stop the war, rather than gobbling up Ukraine in its entirety, was a “pretty big concession”.

This is not only a disaster for Ukraine, though it is obviously that. It is also the destruction of global architecture that has stood for many decades – and it is hardly a lone case. Trump’s tariff fetish is similarly upending a system of international trade that had made the world, and especially the US, more prosperous. The consequences are already visible, in plunging global stock markets, gloomy growth forecasts and warnings of a recession that will start in the US and then spread everywhere else.

Trump’s eagerness to acquiesce in Putin’s seizure of Ukraine makes a dead letter of international law, with its prohibition of the crime of aggression, and that too points to a wider pattern. For Trump is at war with the law at home as well as abroad. Indeed, in three short months, it has become an open question whether the rule of law still operates in the US...

There is no mystery to Trump. It’s all plain to see – the habits of the vandal, the autocrat, the gangster and the fool – with Ukraine as clear a guide as any. Not that that is any comfort to the people of that besieged land. They don’t want to be a cautionary tale, a demonstration case of the fecklessness and menace of Donald Trump. They want to be a free, independent nation. Their great misfortune is that the mighty country that should be their most powerful friend is now in the hands of an enemy."

Mr. President: Putin is THE dictator and 10 Ukraine-Russia war truths we ignore at our peril; New York Post, February 20, 2025

Douglas Murray, New York Post; Mr. President: Putin is THE dictator and 10 Ukraine-Russia war truths we ignore at our peril

"In Trump’s rush to end the bloodshed, these are also the truths against which any deal will be judged and which will define him when the history books are written.

To ignore them or not treat them with the gravity they deserve will also have enormous consequences for decades to come:

Truth No. 5

Putin is a dictator. Putin has ruled Russia with an iron KGB fist since coming to power in 1999. He has ruthlessly quashed independent media, ended free and fair elections, crushed civil society and killed his political opponents. And not just inside Russia, but around the world. People who live inside Russia and express any opposition to the war are imprisoned.

Truth No. 6

Zelensky is not a dictator. A political outsider, Zelensky won the 2019 presidential election, which was relatively free and fair. He has a 57% approval rating, not the 4% Trump claimed.

Unlike in Russia, Ukraine has vibrant independent media that hold the government to account — despite claims to the contrary by internet swamp creatures and Russian bots.

Many Ukrainians freely criticize the government’s conduct of the war. When Britain was fighting for its survival against the Nazis in the 1940s, it too did not hold elections.

The Russian ambassador to the UK spent yesterday crowing that he’s “not sure” Zelensky would be re-elected if there were elections today. But we all know one thing for sure. Whether or not Zelensky would be re-elected in Ukraine, Putin will always be re-elected in Russia. Because his elections are con jobs, pageant shows. Putin hasn’t won a free and fair election in his life. Because he doesn’t hold them."

Ukrainians Rally Around Zelensky as Trump and Putin Denigrate Him; Time, February 21, 2025

 HANNA ARHIROVA / AP, Time; Ukrainians Rally Around Zelensky as Trump and Putin Denigrate Him

"After Trump called Zelensky a “dictator”—for legally postponing an election last year—and as reports emerged of U.S. and Russian officials meeting in Saudi Arabia to discuss a possible ceasefire without input from Ukraine, even some of Zelensky’s harshest domestic critics have begun defending him.

“We may have different opinions about Zelensky, but only Ukrainian citizens have the right to judge his support,” said Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a lawmaker from the opposition party Holos. “And to publicly criticize him too, because, in the end, he is our elected leader.”

Trump’s harsh words for Zelensky have drawn criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans in the U.S. Congress, where defending Ukraine from Russia—with tens of billions of dollars in military aid—has had bipartisan support. But Vice President J.D. Vance admonished Zelensky for publicly warning Trump about falling for Russian disinformation...

A poll released Wednesday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology put public trust in Zelensky at 57%. The survey was conducted Feb. 4 to Feb. 9 among 1,000 people living across Ukraine in regions and territories controlled by the Ukrainian government."

Fox News’ Mark Levin criticizes Trump for attacking Zelensky: ‘MAGA doesn’t support Putin; New York Post, February 20, 2025

 Ronny Reyes, New York Post; Fox News’ Mark Levin criticizes Trump for attacking Zelensky: ‘MAGA doesn’t support Putin’

"Fox News host Mark Levin, a longtime supporter of President Trump, is breaking with the commander-in-chief over his recent attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, warning Trump that “MAGA doesn’t support Putin.”

Speaking on the Mark Levin Show on Wednesday, Levin offered a rare criticism of the president as he backed Zelensky for maintaining order in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion in 2022.

Levin’s segment appeared to be a direct response to Trump’s claims that Zelensky is a dictator that the Ukrainian leader is stopping free elections and only has a very low approval rating. 

The Fox News host said both of those assertions are false."

Russia’s War on Ukraine: Three Years, Three Hundred and Two False Claims; NewsGuard's Reality Check, February 21, 2025

Eva Maitland and Madeline Roache, NEWSGUARD, NewsGuard's Reality Check; Russia’s War on Ukraine: Three Years, Three Hundred and Two False Claims

"As the war in Ukraine approaches the three-year anniversary of the Russian invasion that launched the conflict, NewsGuard has now identified and debunked 302 false claims relating to the war, nearly all of them originating as Russian propaganda.

These 302 claims appear in NewsGuard’s Misinformation Fingerprints proprietary database of viral false narratives that NewsGuard analysts have identified and debunked. NewsGuard analysts have identified 551 websites spreading these false claims...

AI IN ACTION: HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SUPERCHARGES PRO-KREMLIN PROPAGANDA

In 2022, NewsGuard debunked just one AI-generated falsehood emanating from Russia. In the second year of the war, NewsGuard debunked five AI-generated false claims, and there were 16 in the third. Indeed, as AI tools became more readily available, the easy access to AI image, audio, video and text generators has enabled Russia and its allies to reach more people, in more languages, with more convincing false claims...

HOME-GROWN, FOREIGN-TRAINED: THE AMERICAN PROPAGANDIST BEHIND 14 FALSE CLAIMS ABOUT ZELENSKY

The driving force behind these false corruption claims that have amassed so many millions of views appears to be John Mark Dougan, a Florida deputy sheriff turned Kremlin propagandist. Dougan is part of a Russian influence operation dubbed by Microsoft as Storm-1516. It appears to be an offshoot of the Internet Research Agency, a disbanded Russian troll farm.

NewsGuard has debunked 37 false narratives linked to Dougan and Storm-1516 targeting Ukraine, the U.S. 2024 election, the 2024 Paris Olympics, and the German 2025 election."

Revealed: Google facilitated Russia and China’s censorship requests; The Observer via The Guardian, February 15, 2025

Siân Boyle, The Observer via The Guardian; Revealed: Google facilitated Russia and China’s censorship requests

"Google has cooperated with autocratic regimes around the world, including the Kremlin in Russia and the Chinese Communist party, to facilitate censorship requests, an Observer investigation can reveal.

The technology company has engaged with the administrations of about 150 countries since 2011 that want information scrubbed from their public domains.

As well as democratic governments, it has interacted with dictatorships, sanctioned regimes and governments accused of human rights abuses, including the police in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

After requests from the governments of Russia and China, Google has removed content such as YouTube videos of anti-state protesters or content that criticises and alleges corruption among their politicians."

Hoax bomb threats linked to Russia target polling places in battleground states, FBI says; Reuters, November 5, 2024

Tim Reid and Sarah N. Lynch, Reuters; Hoax bomb threats linked to Russia target polling places in battleground states, FBI says

"Hoax bomb threats, many of which appeared to originate from Russian email domains, were directed on Tuesday at polling locations in four battleground states - Georgia, Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin - as Election Day voting was underway, the FBI said.

"None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far," the FBI said in a statement, adding that election integrity was among the bureau's highest priorities...

The two locations, in Fulton County, both re-opened after about 30 minutes, officials said, and the county was seeking a court order to extend the locations' voting hours past the statewide 7 p.m. deadline.

Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, blamed Russian interference for the Election Day bomb hoaxes."

A torrent of Election Day disinformation is coming. Here’s how to avoid falling for it.; Politico, November 5, 2024

 JOHN SAKELLARIADIS, Politico; A torrent of Election Day disinformation is coming. Here’s how to avoid falling for it.

"Haitian immigrants did not vote multiple times for Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia, and poll workers in Pennsylvania did not destroy ballots for Trump, though a pair of videos that went viral in the last 10 days would have you think otherwise.

Both were fabrications of Kremlin influence actors, the U.S. intelligence community has said, and late Monday, it released a new statement calling out “additional influence operations” from Russia...

America’s adversaries “likely learned lessons” from the political turmoil that engulfed the U.S. after Election Day in 2020, senior U.S. intelligence officials told reporters last month. That means Russia, China and Iran are likely to amp up their efforts to spread lies and even incite violence between Election Day and inauguration.

One key defense is to refer any pressing questions to your local officials. “The bottom line when it comes to mis- and disinformation is that voters need to go to the source, and the source is your local and your state election officials,” said Marci Andino, the senior director of the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center."

Russia Escalates Effort to Subvert Election and ‘Instill Fear in Voters,’ U.S. Says; The New York Times, November 4, 2024

 Julian E. Barnes and Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times; Russia Escalates Effort to Subvert Election and ‘Instill Fear in Voters,’ U.S. Says

"Russian groups and other foreign adversaries have unleashed an extensive disinformation campaign to undermine confidence in the election, and senior U.S. officials are worried that Moscow’s efforts could continue to stoke political discord until the election is certified in January...

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the F.B.I. said in a joint statement that foreign adversaries led by Russia were “conducting additional influence operations intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans.”

In recent weeks, the intelligence agencies have dramatically stepped up their alerts. Two weeks ago, they warned of post-election violence. Over the last 10 days, they have now issued three warnings about Russian attempts to undermine faith in the election. And Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said her organization would give regular updates Tuesday to inform the public of threats to the election."

2 more Russian disinformation videos targeting U.S. election are circulating online, sources say; CBS New, November 2, 2024

Margaret Brennan, Robert Legare, James LaPorta, Rhona Tarrant , CBS News; 2 more Russian disinformation videos targeting U.S. election are circulating online, sources say

"U.S. officials believe another two fake videos circulating online and publicly identified by the FBI as an attempt to push false election security claims are likely part of a Russia-backed malign influence campaign ahead of Tuesday's presidential election, two sources familiar with the process told CBS News. 

The news comes after the FBI said in a statement Saturday that the videos "are not authentic, are not from the FBI, and the content they depict is false."

The agency said that one of the videos falsely claims "the FBI has apprehended three linked groups committing ballot fraud, and the second relates to first gentleman Doug Emhoff."

The FBI in its statement did not say who was behind the videos, and when reached by CBS News, declined to comment further. 

It added that the two videos — using Justice Department and FBI signage within them and images of Emhoff — were being circulated as part of "attempts to deceive the public with false content about FBI operations."

Raffensperger asks X to take down ‘false’ video purporting to show voter fraud; The Hill, October 31, 2024

JULIANN VENTURA  , The Hill; Raffensperger asks X to take down ‘false’ video purporting to show voter fraud

"Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) said that his office asked Elon Musk, the owner of X, and the leadership of other social platforms to take down a video purporting to show a Haitian immigrant with multiple Georgia IDs who claimed to have voted multiple times.

The secretary’s office said that the video is false and it is working to identify where the video originated. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is also investigating the matter, according to a press release."

‘Carved on bodies and souls’: Ukrainian men face ‘systemic’ sexual torture in Russian detention centres; The Guardian, October 29, 2024

Emma Graham-Harrisonand Artem Mazhulin in Kyiv, The Guardian; ‘Carved on bodies and souls’: Ukrainian men face ‘systemic’ sexual torture in Russian detention centres

"The UN commissioner for human rights has documented hundreds of cases of sexual violence perpetrated by Russian troops since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Two-thirds of the victims are men and boys who were tortured in Russian jails.

Russia deploys systematic sexual torture against Ukrainians, both civilians and prisoners of war, in “almost all” detention centres where they are held, the UN found.

That includes “rape, attempted rape, threats of rape and castration, beatings or the administration of electric shocks to genitals, repeated forced nudity and sexualised humiliation”.

“The numbers in Ukraine are quite startling,” said Charu Lata Hogg, the executive director of the All Survivors Project, which supports men and boys who have endured sexual violence.

The organisation keeps a global database of cases that stretches back three decades, and the scale of new abuse recorded in Ukraine is unprecedented, she said. Sexual violence against men “happens all over the world, but the struggle is always getting documented cases”.

In Ukraine, the UN has recorded 236 incidents of sexual violence against men and two against boys in under three years."

Russia amplified hurricane disinformation to drive Americans apart, researchers find; AP, October 24, 2024

DAVID KLEPPER, AP; Russia amplified hurricane disinformation to drive Americans apart, researchers find

"Russia has helped amplify and spread false and misleading internet claims about recent hurricanes in the United States and the federal government’s response, part of a wider effort by the Kremlin to manipulate America’s political discourse before the presidential election, new research shows.

The content, spread by Russian state media and networks of social media accounts and websites, criticizes the federal response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, exploiting legitimate concerns about the recovery effort in an attempt to paint American leaders as incompetent and corrupt, according to research from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. The London-based organization tracks disinformation and online extremism."

Elon Musk’s Secret Conversations With Vladimir Putin; Wall Street Journal, October 24, 2024

Thomas Grove, Warren P. Strobel, Aruna Viswanatha, Gordon Lubold, and Sam Schechner, Wall Street Journal; Elon Musk’s Secret Conversations With Vladimir Putin

"Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a linchpin of U.S. space efforts, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022."

As Election Looms, Disinformation ‘Has Never Been Worse’; The New York Times, October 23, 2024

Steven Lee Myers , The New York Times; As Election Looms, Disinformation ‘Has Never Been Worse’

"Numerous factors have contributed to the surge in disinformation, which Ms. Easterly and other officials have warned will continue far beyond Election Day. 

Social media platforms have helped to harden media ecosystems into distinct, disparate partisan enclaves where facts contradicting preconceived narratives are often unwelcome. Artificial intelligence has become an accelerant, making fake or fanciful content ubiquitous online with merely a few keystrokes."

American creating deepfakes targeting Harris works with Russian intel, documents show; The Washington Post, October 23, 2024

Catherine Belton , The Washington Post; American creating deepfakes targeting Harris works with Russian intel, documents show

"The more than 150 documents — which were shared with The Post to demonstrate the extent of Russian interference through Dougan and focus mostly on the period between March 2021 and August 2024 — for the first time expose some of the inner workings of a network that researchers and intelligence officials say has become the most potent source of fake news emanating from Russia and targeting American voters over the past year.

Disinformation researchers say Dougan’s network was probably behind a recent viral fake video smearing Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz, which U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday was created by Russia. It received nearly 5 million views on X in less than 24 hours, Microsoft said.

Since September 2023, posts, articles and videos generated by Dougan and some of the Russians who work with him have garnered 64 million views, said McKenzie Sadeghi, who has closely followed Dougan’s sites and is a researcher at NewsGuard, a company that tracks disinformation online."

Trump Suggests Abraham Lincoln Should've Let the South Keep a Little Slavery; Vanity Fair, October 18, 2024

 Bess Levin, Vanity Fair; Trump Suggests Abraham Lincoln Should've Let the South Keep a Little Slavery

"Donald Trump appeared on Fox News this morning, where, during a characteristically bizarre interview, he suggested Abraham Lincoln could have avoided the Civil War by cutting a deal with the South—which, as a reminder, wanted slavery to remain legal.

Asked by a 10-year-old who his favorite president was when he was “little,” Trump began by saying he “liked Ronald Reagan.” (Note: Trump was 34 when Reagan first took office, and 42 when he left.) Then he turned to Lincoln, who he believes was a great president—but could’ve been better if he’d “settled” the Civil War.

“Great presidents?” Trump said. “Lincoln was probably a great president, although I’ve always said, why wasn’t that settled? You know, I’m a guy that—it doesn’t make sense we had a Civil War…. You’d almost say, like, why wasn’t that [settled]? As an example, Ukraine would have never happened, and Russia, if I were president. Israel would have never happened; October 7 would have never happened, as you know.”"

Moldova votes on whether to join EU as Russia intensifies vast disinformation campaign; The Conversation, October 15, 2024

Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham , The Conversation;nMoldova votes on whether to join EU as Russia intensifies vast disinformation campaign

"Moldova is emerging as a major strategic battleground in a fierce competition between Russia and the west. A Kremlin-backed disinformation campaign has intensified over the last few months, in the run-up to Moldova’s presidential elections. 

One of the key reasons for this is that a referendum on EU membership has been scheduled for the same day, October 20.

The challenges for this small country, wedged between Ukraine and Romania, are complex. Russia continues to foment instability through its persistent disinformation initiatives, instigation of anti-government protests, and acts of sabotage and vandalism. 

Add to this credible allegations of vote buying, and efforts to call into question the legitimacy of a pro-European election and referendum result, and the situation in Moldova appears highly combustible."

We’re Winning, Say Russia’s Fake News Manufacturers; Center for European Policy Analysis, October 16, 2024

Olga Lautman, Center for European Policy Analysis; We’re Winning, Say Russia’s Fake News Manufacturers

"Did you see the German woman complaining on social media that her country’s industry is suffering and needs cheaper energy? Or the American woman of the same age arguing that Israel and Ukraine are wasting US taxpayer’s money?

Both were crafted in Russia, according to a huge trove of documents leaked to Western media in September, and published by the VSquare investigative site among others. They were just two of 33.9 million social media comments fabricated by the Social Design Agency (SDA), a Kremlin disinformation subcontractor, in the first third of 2024 alone.

If anyone thought wartime Russia might lose focus in its truth-twisting campaigns against Ukraine and the liberal democratic states, think again. Putin and his aides still see disinformation as a key element of the colonial endeavor against Ukraine and the embitterment and fractiousness of Western voters.

Faced with international sanctions, military setbacks, significant losses, and growing isolation, Russia has increasingly ramped up its disinformation operations, political subversion, and the manipulation of public opinion in the West — echoing the KGB’s tactics of psychological warfare and subversion."

This threat hunter chases U.S. foes exploiting AI to sway the election; The Washington Post, October 13, 2024

Cat Zakrzewski, The Washington Post; This threat hunter chases U.S. foes exploiting AI to sway the election

"Ben Nimmo, the principal threat investigator for the high-profile AI pioneer, had uncovered evidence that Russia, China and other countries were using its signature product, ChatGPT, to generate social media posts in an effort to sway political discourse online. Nimmo, who had only started at OpenAI in February, was taken aback when he saw that government officials had printed out his report, with key findings about the operations highlighted and tabbed.

That attention underscored Nimmo’s place at the vanguard in confronting the dramatic boost that artificial intelligence can provide to foreign adversaries’ disinformation operations. In 2016, Nimmo was one of the first researchers to identify how the Kremlin interfered in U.S. politics online. Now tech companies, government officials and other researchers are looking to him to ferret out foreign adversaries who are using OpenAI’s tools to stoke chaos in the tenuous weeks before Americans vote again on Nov. 5.

So far, the 52-year-old Englishman says Russia and other foreign actors are largely “experimenting” with AI, often in amateurish and bumbling campaigns that have limited reach with U.S. voters. But OpenAI and the U.S. government are bracing for Russia, Iran and other nations to become more effective with AI, and their best hope of parrying that is by exposing and blunting operations before they gain traction."