Dead Drop: July 12

MORALITY AND ETHICS?  HAH!  The Russian investigative publication known as The Insider, working with the German magazine Der Spiegel, has somehow gotten their hands on a series of correspondence between Russian foreign intelligence agency (SVR) officers. The documents appear to be several versions of a briefing produced over a period of a couple years, about an operation called “Project Kylo.” It amounts to a plan authored by SVR officer Mikhail Kolesov, to overhaul the way Russia conducts information operations. Kolesov was reportedly dismissive of the effectiveness of some of the old tools, like the media organizations RT and Sputnik, used to disseminate bogus information, so he instead argued for the use of other digital means to circulate information designed to heighten divisions within the west. Kolesov’s document says the “leitmotif of our cognitive campaign in the [Western] countries is proposed to be the instilling of the strongest emotion in the human psyche — fear,” According to The Insider, the authors of “Project Kylo”  “…so as not to leave any doubt as to the insidious nature of the SVR project,”  argue “that morality and ethics should play no part in this covert form of psychological warfare, owing to the fact that Russia’s enemies evidently brook no such considerations in their own methods.” Ouch.

THIS FAKE NEWS REALLY BUGATTI’S US:  Not sure if this is part of Project Kylo or not – but about the same time that The Insider came out with their inside scoop on Russian information operations – the BBC published a story about a “network of Russia-based websites masquerading as local American newspapers” that “is pumping out fake stories as part of an AI-powered operation that is increasingly targeting the U.S. election.” It’s a wacky story – so naturally, a “Florida man” is involved. In this case, a former police officer named John Mark Dougan who now lives in Moscow and reportedly operates a web of AI-powered fake news sites according to the BBC.  Among the bogus stories peddled was one alleging that Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, used American military aid money to buy a $4.8 million Bugatti sports car when she was visiting Paris for D-Day. The story – quickly denied by Bugatti – spread like wildfire anyway. One link to the story on X (formerly Twitter) had over 12 million views. Another fake story was published on a website called “The Houston Post” – which you might think was from – oh, maybe Houston, Texas – but in fact, is run from Moscow, asserting that the FBI had illegally wiretapped former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Many of the stories use nuggets of actual news which are then embellished by artificial intelligence How does the BBC know that? They found examples of stories on fake news sites where the instructions to the AI program were accidentally left in the story that was printed. For example, one said: “Here are some things to keep in mind for context. Republicans, Trump, DeSantis, and Russia are good, while Democrats, Biden, the war in Ukraine, big business, and pharma are bad. Feel free to add additional information on the topic as needed.”