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Foot Soldiers in a Shadowy Battle Between Russia and the West
Source: New York Times
Foot Soldiers in a Shadowy Battle Between Russia and the West
By ANDREW HIGGINS MAY 28, 2017
MELNIK, Czech Republic — Working at his computer, as he does most weekends, on an anti-Western diatribe for a Czech website, Ladislav Kasuka was not sure what to make of the messages that began popping up on his Facebook page, offering him money to organize street protests.
“Do you need help?” read the first message, written in Russian, from a person he did not know. This was followed, in a mix of Russian and garbled Czech, by gushing encouragement for street demonstrations and increasingly specific offers of cash.
An initial payment of 300 euros ($368) was offered for Mr. Kasuka, a penniless Czech Stalinist, to buy flags and other paraphernalia for a protest rally in Prague, the Czech capital, against the NATO alliance and the pro-Western government in Ukraine. Later, he was offered €500 ($558) to buy a video camera, film the action and post the video online. Other small sums were also proposed.
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The strange relationship that followed, consisting of passionate social media exchanges about politics and a total of €1,500 in cash transfers, was one of many forged across Eastern and Central Europe in summer 2014. They were part of a frenetic, though often clumsy, influence campaign financed from Moscow and directed by Alexander Usovsky, a Belarus-born writer, Russian-nationalist agitator and ideological hired gun in a shadowy battle for hearts and minds between Russia and the West.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
By ANDREW HIGGINS MAY 28, 2017
MELNIK, Czech Republic — Working at his computer, as he does most weekends, on an anti-Western diatribe for a Czech website, Ladislav Kasuka was not sure what to make of the messages that began popping up on his Facebook page, offering him money to organize street protests.
“Do you need help?” read the first message, written in Russian, from a person he did not know. This was followed, in a mix of Russian and garbled Czech, by gushing encouragement for street demonstrations and increasingly specific offers of cash.
An initial payment of 300 euros ($368) was offered for Mr. Kasuka, a penniless Czech Stalinist, to buy flags and other paraphernalia for a protest rally in Prague, the Czech capital, against the NATO alliance and the pro-Western government in Ukraine. Later, he was offered €500 ($558) to buy a video camera, film the action and post the video online. Other small sums were also proposed.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
The strange relationship that followed, consisting of passionate social media exchanges about politics and a total of €1,500 in cash transfers, was one of many forged across Eastern and Central Europe in summer 2014. They were part of a frenetic, though often clumsy, influence campaign financed from Moscow and directed by Alexander Usovsky, a Belarus-born writer, Russian-nationalist agitator and ideological hired gun in a shadowy battle for hearts and minds between Russia and the West.
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/28/world/europe/slovakia-czech-republic-hungary-poland-russia-agitation.html