Dead Drop: February 18

ZERO COINCIDENCE? At a time when the public and media have been noticing the administration declassifying lots of intelligence relating to the Russian threats to Ukraine, there was an interesting story out this week from the Associated Press quoting unnamed U.S. intelligence officials accusing the website Zero Hedge, which has 1.2 million Twitter followers, of parroting Kremlin propaganda. Some of the articles appearing on the site were reportedly written by people associated with an outfit called the “Strategic Culture Foundation,” which intelligence officials claim ultimately operates at the direction of the SVR, the Russian intelligence service.  Zero Hedge wasted zero time in blasting the AP piece denying the allegations in a piece they posted titled: “Now We’ve Done It: We Pissed Off the CIA.” It is not the first time Zero Hedge has been accused of carrying Putin’s water.  Back in March of 2020, there was an article in The New Republic asking the question: “Is Zero Hedge a Russian Trojan Horse?”   Although it is not readily apparent by looking at Zero Hedge, apparently the company that owns it is based in Bulgaria. BTW, don’t miss what three Cipher Brief experts had to say about the trend of sharing intelligence with the public this week.

IRONY, IF NOT DEAD, MAY BE ON LIFE SUPPORT:  Every country has their own holidays and commemorative occasions.  Here in the US, we have MLK Day, President’s Day, and stuff like that.  In Russia, there is the upcoming “Defender of the Fatherland Day” (February 23^rd) and the just-passed: “Diplomat’s Day” – which was celebrated on February 10.  We told you about that holiday last year, when some Russian diplomats released an awful video to mark the occasion.  How was the day observed in 2022? It is unclear to us if Russia has a functioning embassy in Ukraine and, if so, whether the diplomats there are busy preparing care packages for their troops massed around the country’s borders. We do know that the Russian Embassy in Washington marked the day by tweeting out a link to an “interactive photo exhibition dedicated to outstanding Russian diplomats who served in the U.S.” in the past.  (Click on that link at your own risk.) Back in Moscow, according to Diplopundit, the day was marked by U.S. Embassy Moscow’s Deputy Chief of Mission Bart Gorman and his family departing Russia after being declared persona non-grata. So much for diplomacy. Interestingly – Diplopundit reported Gorman’s ouster on February14th, but the State Department only got around to publicly confirming it on Thursday the 17^th. Great work by the Diplopundit blog which (sadly) announced on Thursday that they would be shutting down.  For all those who have been sending tips to them – you know our address.