France to Probe Possible Russian Influence on Yellow Vest Riots

[applegrove]

France to Probe Possible Russian Influence on Yellow Vest RiotsBy 

Carol Matlack and Robert Williams at Bloomberg


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-09/pro-russia-social-media-aims-at-macron-as-yellow-vests-rage?srnd=politics-vp


"SNIP.....


France opened a probe into possible Russian interference behind the country’s Yellow Vest protests, after reports that social-media accounts linked to Moscow have increasingly targeted the movement.

According to the Alliance for Securing Democracy, about 600 Twitter accounts known to promote Kremlin views have begun focusing on France, boosting their use of the hashtag #giletsjaunes, the French name for the Yellow Vest movement. French security services are looking at the situation, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Sunday in a radio interview with RTL.

Russia has been criticized for using social media to influence elections in the U.S. and elsewhere. Attempts to use fake news reports and cyberattacks to undercut the 2017 campaign of French President Emmanuel Macron failed, but Russian-linked sites have pushed questionable reports of a mutiny among police, and of officers’ support for the protests.

“An investigation is now underway,” Le Drian said. “I will not make comments before the investigation has brought conclusions.”

......SNIP"

[blue neen]

1. It wouldn't be much of a surprise, would it?

Putin is causing chaos everywhere.

[Me.]

2. And Of Course Individual 1 Had To Put His 2 Cents In

[poli-junkie]

3. I knew it was a Marine Le Pen/Putin-influenced violent protest!

When I first heard the news I said to myself, "I bet these protests have Le Pen's and Putin's hands all over this!"

Anytime there is an internal conflict within a stable country, leaders need to look into social media influence. It is Putin's modus operanti: UK = Brexit; Spain = Catalonia separatists; France = yellow vest protests.

Putin's like the James O'Keefe of manipulated disinformation. You'd think more leaders of the free world would suspect Russian Bot influence before being cowed into submission.

[applegrove]

4. The mistake Macron made was by taxing carbon and not making

sure the money raised goes directly back to the communities somehow. Immediately. But as Krugman said the yellow vests want tax cuts and more services from government. That is an impossibility. Someone is fooling them into thinking they can have everything. Large groups of people can get unrealistic quite quickly given some seemingly organic cause be it a populist, a psychopath or russians online. Saudis, US and Russia got together to water down climate agreements today. They sure want to sell oil. No doubt Russia wants to do in any carbon pricing system anywhere. We will find out too late what is going on.

[PSPS]

5. and trump's putin-directed twitter is chiming in too, further inflaming the violence

[elmac]

6. This could be a doubled edged sword

I wouldn't doubt for a second that putin is involved, weaponizing citizens via cyber warfare, but this could also be used as an excuse for governments to marginalize demonstrations, turn the public against legitimate demonstrations by blaming putin. Catch 22

[DFW]

9. Which, in turn, would cause vast demonstrations with a legitimate cause

This is pure 1980s KGB. It sounds just like something VVP would think up.

[DFW]

7. It wouldn't surprise me, considering reports on how these things were organized, and by whom

These people seem more like "les casseurs" than people with a social cause. No serious spokesmen or leaders, notable absence of people from economically disadvantaged areas, and the fact that the real hot spots seem to have been organized by anonymous groups operating through obscure facebook accounts. Indeed, their only real unifying goal seems to be using a vague pretext to cause Macron headaches. Let me see, whose agenda does that fit, again?

[dalton99a]

8. +1. We have seen this movie a few times

The producer was Russian, I believe

[DFW]

10. Indeed we have, and he was.

Different actors, same script.

[moondust]

11. Meh.

I've watched France24 intermittently since the protests began a few weeks ago. They've had reporters on the street interviewing protestors as well as discussions and analysis. Haven't heard any significant references in their coverage pointing to Russian involvement. Marine Le Pen has gotten a little airtime so that may be a possibility, though she would probably do that even without any help from Vladdy. Could be some plain old anarchists involved in the looting and destruction as well.

Seems to be mostly about economic anxiety and inequality, similar to languishing rural areas in the U.K. voting for Brexit and rural areas in the U.S. supporting the orange "outsider," all trying to shake things up and effect some kind of paradigm shift.

At this point I think I'd be more suspicious of neoliberals determined to preserve the status quo and using Russia as a boogeyman.