For a decade Putin operated with impunity. Invading Chechnya, Georgia, and Ukraine, bombing civilians in Syria, interfering in Azerbaijan, and using his troll army to get Trump elected, Brexit passed and turned a simple public health issue into a global cultural war beachhead. Putin expected that not only would his army dominate the battlefield in Ukraine, but his cyber army would also dominate the Infowars and control the narrative. However, the results of his Ukraine invasion have been just the opposite.
Putin is not just getting humiliated on the battlefield, he is getting his ass kicked across all channels of information. How is it possible that the trolls who got Trump elected President of the USA are getting obliterated by little Ukraine? There is a simple explanation. Just like his military, Putin’s cyber army only looked good when they were allowed to operate unchallenged. It’s easy to look like superman when your opponent is fighting blindfolded with both hands tied behind his back.
While Putin’s misinformation may still seem brilliant to nitwits like the Q nuts, Tucker Carlson, and Madison Cawthorn, the klieg light of the Ukraine invasion has exposed to the world how lame and shambolic it truly is. Denazifying Ukraine, Biolabs sending infected migratory birds into Russia, and the latest ‘we really didn’t want to capture Kyiv - it was just a diversion so we could liberate the East’. Really????
Russia has a sophisticated TV and film industry, a great literary tradition, couldn’t the entire Russian brain trust come up with something better than this transparently absurd collection of narratives? It’s likely that all the talented artists and writers are leaving Russia and protesting rather than supporting Putin’s war. That leaves Putin with the D-list working on his propaganda.
The online antics of Chechen warlord and Putin attack dog Ramzan Kadyrov are representative of the level of stupidity in Russian disinformation.
Kadyrov "supersoldiers", who are allegedly "near battlefront in Ukraine" film tiktoks in Belarus
Almost immediately upon entering Ukraine an entire Chechen mechanized division of 56 tanks was wiped out and its commander Magomed Tushayev was killed. After this initial engagement, the Chechens retreated and spent the rest of their time in Northern Ukraine harassing civilians and making tik tok videos pretending they were taking the fight to the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians have taken to calling the once feared Kadyrivite Chechens, the Tik Tok army, as the only fighting they do is on fake social media videos.
Putin’s Baghdad Bob Brigade
The invasion of Ukraine has put Putin’s Republican allies in the US in a bind. Most have had to abandon their favorite autocrat, at least in public, as it might be a bad look for upcoming elections. But the core of the Trump wing is not giving up on their hero Putin, the alpha leader of white supremacists and fascists the world over.
‘Any day now Putin will release evidence on Hillary or Hunter Biden that will end the Democrats.’ ‘Putin is really winning and everything is playing out according to some great master plan the genius Putin has yet to reveal.’ Pretty pathetic, Goebbels would be sorely disappointed in his modern-day acolytes. Now that Putin’s democratic online opposition is punching back big time, it’s not working anymore. It’s looking as lame and ridiculous as it really is. Putin’s implosion on the battlefield and online is damaging his fellow travelers and flunkies. They were as dependent on Putin’s disinformation campaigns as he was.
There looks to be potential blowback on Putin’s minions in the US from this invasion. We should be finding ways to exploit those weaknesses going into the midterms. The compromised position on Putin should be combined with their compromised position on insulin charges, veterans benefits, and a 1,000 other indefensible positions. Time to reinforce the cyber armies of democracy.