Kremlin propogandist Konstantin Rykov was bragging about Trump and Cambridge Analytica in **2015**
Just a brief refresher...Konstantin Rykov is the former Duma (Russian parliament member) turned internet propagandist who the Kremlin considered a high ranking "Trusted Confidant". Several days after the 2016 election, Rykov posted a confession on Facebook where he claimed he was personally inspired by Trump to run an online influencing campaign to get him elected, using Cambridge Analytica, Wikileaks and online hackers as resources. Besides myself, Seth Abramson, Malcolm Nance and Scott Stedman have all written about Rykov. Here's Stedman's column from last year:
https://medium.com/@ScottMStedman/kremlin-propagandist-boasted-of-his-hacking-efforts-strongly-implied-colluding-with-trump-team-in-a905104965a1
The thing about Rykov is that he's never shy to share over social media and this weekend I was alerted to tweets of his from September 27, 2015 where he jokes that "British Scientists have created the image of an ideal US president" with a picture of Vladimir Putin's face superimposed onto Donald Trump's head.
Here's the tweet in original Russian:
Link to tweet
Here's a translated screencap:
This was tweeted only about a month after Rykov had launched a Russian language pro-Trump website. In his confession Rykov claims to have supported a Trump presidential candidacy since Election Night 2012. Twitter records seem to confirm this fact.
The reference to "British Scientists" may be a reference to Cambridge University scientists Mikihal Kosiniki and Alexandr Kogan, who created a app for Facebook titled "My Personality", the results of which Kogan reportedly divulged to Cambridge Analytica, who used the data to create personality "psychometrics" for US voters who could be targeted.
Rykov discusses the use of psychometrics and Cambridge Analytica (as well as Cambridge scientists in particular) in targeting Trump voters over social media in his November 2016 Facebook confession.
This may add further proof that Rykov's 2016 Facebook confession was not simply hot air on his part but an actual divulging of a Russian scheme to help Donald Trump get elected.
If anyone is curious, my five part post on Konstantin Rykov, his confession and background can be found here:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210416264
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