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Every country does not (sic!) have troll farms, as evident from the lack of stories regarding them. + Show Spoiler [Own experience] +In fact, only the two parties supported by Russia in Estonia utilize this technique as evident from the very small social media sphere here. . The very existence of troll farms brings about more distrust. One the one hand, it spreads a pro-Russia view that spreads a great deal of misinformation from purported pro-Western sources + Show Spoiler +Read this article on how the standard modus operandi is working in groups of three, each person taking a different point of view. , on the other, pro-Russia views are labeled as troll-produced. A part of this is that those who actually hold pro-Russia views often sound less like real people if they purport to support views also expressed by bots/paid commentators. But it's exactly this distrust of all of social media that these troll farms aim to accomplish. If you can't trust that the people you interact with are actually real, there's no point in using social media to gather information outside of regime-controlled channels. This suits Putin well, methinks.
As for the article itself, I didn't read it as it had very little novel in the beginning, but the New York Times online is generally a pretty poor source of news. But the phenomenon is quite old. You can find links to read about Russian troll farms here.
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Regarding the Nemtsov investigation, most of the chatter has turned to analysing the relationship between Kadyrov and Putin. As the only suspect is custody worked for him, this might be an indication that Kadyrov is: a) doing Putin a favour, b) challenging Putin, b) trying to capture a bigger slice of the government pie from other agencies, c) being pushed out by other agencies, etc. If you're interested I can provide some links to this recent chatter, but I haven't seen a definitive article nor a good reading compendium.
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United Kingdom13774 Posts
There are at least a few stories around. Though that is quite an aside and an issue I think I've given more attention than it's worth, so I'll leave it there.
I'd say that the Kadyrov angle is a dead end. He isn't exactly an upstanding figure and he makes many rather idiotic shows of power, but he keeps the peace in the unstable region of Chechnya. I had no doubt from the beginning that Chechens were responsible for the shooting itself, because there are plenty of willing mercenaries there for whoever would be willing to pay to have him killed.
Overall, Kadyrov is a bit of a curiosity, but it makes a lot more sense to have someone like him around when there are terrorists within the nation's borders. He will do lots of seemingly threatening posturing (e.g. threatening to shoot Russian police officers if they interfere) as he always does, but if he does something out of line he will quickly be removed, and he knows that.
Not an obvious conclusion, but I'd say it's definitely best to look elsewhere for meaningful information on this story.
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United Kingdom13774 Posts
There have actually been some updates worth mentioning within the past few weeks.
http://lenta.ru/news/2015/10/13/dadaev/ Ballistics report just released analyzing Nemtsov's death. Evidence against Dadaev is pretty solid, but they're also analyzing weapon origins, cause of death, etc. DNA analysis implicates three other people who were in the car with him.
http://lenta.ru/news/2015/10/19/kremlin/ Complaint from Duma deputy (Dmitry Gudkov, opposition member) on poor handling of the security in Moscow that allowed this to happen. A few more similar stories, but not much worth mentioning.
http://lenta.ru/news/2015/10/18/chechnya/ Leaders of Chechnya will be questioned about Nemtsov's death. A few suspects from there who are considered the likely organizers of the assassination. Kadyrov may or may not be questioned, federal investigators don't really want to do it.
http://lenta.ru/news/2015/10/23/dadaev/ Dadaev requests to be freed from custody and allowed to go fight for ISIS in Syria.
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Submitting news articles in Russian with your own two-sentence summaries to an English-speaking web forum isn't exactly helpful. Submitting news articles regarding a controversial subject entirely from a single, Russian source isn't exactly objective.
Also, I think the "poor handling" of security surrounding the single-most important building in Russia's capitol, during which security cameras were conveniently "not working" at the time of the assassination, is very worth mentioning.
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United Kingdom13774 Posts
If you want more from these articles, try Google Translate. If that doesn't do it for you, you're free to ask more questions about them. Also, feel free to post any English-language sources you have - I'm quite sure that the western world has pretty much forgotten that Nemtsov ever existed after the whole "Putin conspiracy" angle didn't go anywhere. And if Lenta doesn't do it from you, you're free to go to the bottom of the article and read their sources.
Look at link #2 for more on the story. Sure, it's an important concern, but there isn't too much interesting within the actual articles.
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On October 24 2015 01:10 LegalLord wrote: ... I'm quite sure that the western world has pretty much forgotten that Nemtsov ever existed after the whole "Putin conspiracy" angle didn't go anywhere...
No, it's that Putin obviously did it and there's only so many shits the average Westerner can be bothered to give about dictators killing dissidents. Like yeah, we get it, Putin is a douche. But he has nukes and a great propoganda operation, so we can't touch him, so fuck it imma play some Halo.
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On November 07 2015 04:20 Yoav wrote:Show nested quote +On October 24 2015 01:10 LegalLord wrote: ... I'm quite sure that the western world has pretty much forgotten that Nemtsov ever existed after the whole "Putin conspiracy" angle didn't go anywhere... there's only so many shits the average Westerner can be bothered to give about dictators killing dissidents. What are we going to do about it? Go to Russia and run for office? Putin may have killed his political opponent because he could have become dangerous since the Russian economy is in the shitter. Will I protest him out of office from Canada on circumstantial evidence? Even if it's true there's nothing we can do... and even if we could, why bother. It's not my fight.
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On February 28 2015 20:07 darkness wrote: Has anyone noticed that dictators' names in Russia end with "in"? Lenin, Stalin and Putin. :D
Of course, western media will play its propaganda against Russia but it is right in this case. How can you justify Russia's agenda in Ukraine? Gorbechav .. Kruschev sure
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On November 07 2015 07:46 Djzapz wrote:Show nested quote +On November 07 2015 04:20 Yoav wrote:On October 24 2015 01:10 LegalLord wrote: ... I'm quite sure that the western world has pretty much forgotten that Nemtsov ever existed after the whole "Putin conspiracy" angle didn't go anywhere... there's only so many shits the average Westerner can be bothered to give about dictators killing dissidents. What are we going to do about it? Go to Russia and run for office? Putin may have killed his political opponent because he could have become dangerous since the Russian economy is in the shitter. Will I protest him out of office from Canada on circumstantial evidence? Even if it's true there's nothing we can do... and even if we could, why bother. It's not my fight.
Pretty much my point.
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