Olga Lautman: From Kremlin to MAGA: Russia's Decade-Long Influence in America [View all]

[Dennis Donovan]

Olga Lautman - From Kremlin to MAGA: Russia's Decade-Long Influence in America

Olga Lautman
Nov 23, 2024

For decades, Russia has been running a sophisticated operation designed to destabilize the United States and polarize its society. With Trump’s return to power in the aftermath of the 2024 election, it is clearer than ever that Moscow’s long game—leveraging disinformation, propaganda, and psychological warfare—has been central to shaping the conditions for Trump’s political resurrection. The ultimate goal of Russia’s interference has always been to weaken America as a global power and dismantle its democratic institutions.

For the past decade, I’ve been warning about the dangers of Russia's information warfare and the devastating effects it could have on US and global stability. Ukraine was used as a testing ground for Russia’s asymmetric warfare tactics, including cyberattacks, disinformation, and psychological operations. These same tactics were then unleashed against all of Europe, the U.S., Canada, and the rest of the world.

Russia’s Decades of Influence Operations: A Strategy for Division

Russia’s campaign to destabilize the U.S. has deep roots, dating back to the Soviet Union and the KGB’s efforts to sow discord in Western democracies. However, with the advent of modern technology, Russia has exponentially increased the scale and reach of its operations. What was once a slow, methodical process of disinformation and ideological subversion has now been supercharged by the power of the internet and social media. Through cyberattacks, social media manipulation, and support for far-right political movements, Russia has been able to exploit America’s existing divisions, amplifying them to unprecedented levels. From fueling the birtherism movement to stoking fears around the COVID-19 pandemic to manipulating economic anxieties and exacerbating tensions over immigration and the border, Russian operations have consistently found ways to target the most contentious issues in American society. This ability to reach millions of Americans in minutes, spreading disinformation and deepening divisions, has made Russia’s influence campaign far more effective—and dangerous—than ever before.

Disinformation is Moscow’s primary weapon in its strategic goals to subvert democracy. Through social media bots, fake news websites, and highly targeted ads, Russia amplifies some of the most polarizing issues in American politics—economic insecurity, immigration, race relations, religious tensions, traditional values, and many other divisive topics. These tactics are strategically crafted to exploit existing societal divisions, deepen rifts, and sow discord across the country. By fueling confusion, fear, and anger around these issues, Russia effectively stokes the fires of populist movements, further fracturing the American political landscape. The Kremlin's fingerprints were all over the anti-immigrant rhetoric, economic fear-mongering, and culture wars that have dominated American politics, laying the foundation for Trump’s propaganda.

Similarly in Europe, Russia has leveraged far-right political groups and nationalist movements to challenge the European Union and democratic values. These efforts strengthened a transatlantic axis of division, where the far-right, aligned with Russia's interests, helped Moscow push its anti-democratic agenda and global strategic goals.

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