Serious question: Was former DUer Catherina some sort of Russian disinfo op?

[Tommy Carcetti]

30. In 2014 and 2015, it was rather obvious.

DU does not drive politics in the outside word in general.

However, it is one of the most highly trafficked message boards for Democrats and American progressives on the internet. There's a huge audience here.

In 2014--as in 2022--Russia was desperate to frame what was going on in Ukraine as American and western imperialism run amok, even though its actions were in reality driving the situation.

And it needed host individuals to drive that message.

Problem was, most American conservatives were rah-rah American jingoists not inclined to attack American policy.

On the other hand, there were a lot on the left still angry (and very justifiably so) about acts of overreach by the United States in Iraq. And so they attempted to transfer that justified anger about Iraq into some greater narrative about American imperialism in general, and then transpose it onto the situation in Ukraine, even though direct US involvement in Ukraine was rather limited other than offering basic moral support to a democratic (and therefore more western friendly) Ukraine.

So it made sense to play towards the hard and seemingly anti-war American left in order to co-opt those positions for their own selfish purposes. (Just as they made a play to co-opt legitimate support for Senator Sander's 2016 presidential bid in the primaries in order to turn it into a weapon against Hillary Clinton in the general election.)

I doubt DU was by any means their only target. I'm sure there were many, many targets. But it's not crazy at all to think we were indeed a target.