Litvinenko Poisoning – Is The Russian Establishment Astroturfing the UK Media ?
Charlie Whittaker at perfect.co.uk thinks they might be:
Astroturfski
Political landscape. It?s not a bad metaphor. Landscapes can be complex but they don?t change quickly. They?re large and engrossing; you can spend time getting to know them. To an outsider (someone from Missouri, or Windhoek, perhaps) we might seem obsessive (?all politicians are like that – what?s so bad about your guys, really??). Well, it?s our scene, OK. The Euston Manifesto. The Big Conversation. The Spectator. Upsetting if you?re not used to it, but all perfectly normal. Leave us to handle it.
And then a Russian emigre gets irradiated (cack-handedly, by the looks of things) and everything is different. Overnight, the stream of political consciousness flowing into sites such as Comment is free ? and the BBC?s Have Your Say goes from slightly peaty to shit brown (and all the fish die):
We’re well used by now to comment threads getting highjacked by Zonist operatives: it’s got to the point where only the most wilfully naive bother to engage them any more, they are such obvious paid trolls. But the Russians copying this information warfare tactic is new. Charlie Whitaker goes on to give an example from the Guardian:
There will be no implications on the UK-Russia relationship because there is no evidence that Kremlin had anything to do with it. The media is for some reason stirring anti-Russian feelings which is certainly not productive. Russia is getting richer and more influential and some people obviously cannot stand it. Mr Litvinenko has served under president Yeltsin, when some individuals got extremely rich through dubious dealings with the regime. I?m sure he has created many enemies during that period.
– Alex, London (Have Your Say)
The same thought occurred to me when I was reading Comment Is Free and , but I reckoned the moderators’d be on it sharpish. Besides, if I could see it was astrotrurf, surely others could too? And they did:
There was some discussion behind the scenes before this post was written. That?s unusual (although obviously you?ll just have to take my word for it, Matthew). The UK blogging community – this end of it, at least – is stubbornly autonomous. We ?talk? to each other by blogging, so what you see is usually the extent of what?s being said. But when you come across something truly odd – and the Litvinenko killing is truly odd – you find yourself doubting almost everything you read. And none of us really wants to mad the place up by going off on some random hunch (although if we were all like Chris Dillow we?d just wink and tell you – Cretan paradox style – not to trust us). So, that said, here are some thoughts about the Litvinenko astroturfski and just why it is that every British person has vanished from the Comment is free ? Litvinenko threads:
Most internet discussions relating to Israel / Palestine are at least twice as paranoiac and propaganda-filled There are lots of Russian emigres in Britain and they still stick up for Mother Russia Some American nationalists are just as bad Berezovsky is not quite like Rupert Murdoch but it?s still possible to hate and fear him because he?s rich (and a traitor) The Russian tendency to ?sprout authoritarians like flowers after rain is too consistent not to have some roots in the national psyche? (thanks, Tom) We remember iraqwar.ru The Russians do propaganda None of which brings Litvinenko back to life, of course.
I’ve not written anything about the Litvinenko poisoning myself as yet, it’s all too hazy to make out any pattern other than that someone is sending a very strong message that they can kill openly anytime and anywhere and there’s nothing our police or intelligence services can do to stop them.
Plastering the comments boards of the UK media with pro-Russia sentiments is just another aspect of that: to paraphrase a recent internet meme, what Russia is saying to Europe is “WER IN UR COUNTRY DOIN WHATEVER THE FUCK WE LIKE”.
No change there then. Taking Bush’s lead, they’ve just got a litle more blatant about it.
Read more: UK politics, Russia, Litvinenko posining, Astroturf
