“The St. Petersburg Internet Research Agency just seems like such a tiny operation.”
The relative size and scope of the St. Petersburg Internet Research Agency can hardly be described as “a tiny operation” when compared to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The St. Petersburg Internet Research Agency is being funded with about $13 million per year according to documents leaked by hackers. That amount of funding for the St. Petersburg Internet Research Agency alone is about one-third to seven-eighths of the funding for NED in a given year. A major difference, however, is that NED’s funding of $15 million to $30 million per year is for program around the world, the great majority of which has nothing to do with the funding of Internet trolls. So, by itself the St. Petersburg Internet Research Agency has substantially grater funding used for Internet trolls than NED has for all forms of Internet propaganda, trolls and otherwise. Then you have to take into account that the St. Petersburg Internet Research Agency is only one of many such Russian troll mills with comparable and greater funding. So, NED is completely dwarfed by the Russian government’s Internet trolling operations. Finally, the character and purpose of the Russian Internet trolling operations are quite different from that of NED.
Excerpt from wikipedia on the National Endowment for Democracy:
“The current events in Ukraine are interesting when considered against the background of work done by the National Endowment for Democracy in the Ukraine. In their 2012 report,[23] NED indicated that it spent US$3,381,824 (from the US federal budget) on the following programs in the Ukraine:
ANGO Resource Center: $30,086
Association of Ukrainian Law Enforcement Monitors: $44,900
Bakhchisarai Center of Regional Development “Top-Kaya: $15,526
Bukovyna Partnership Agency: $48,295
Center for International Private Enterprise: $359,945
Center for Political Studies and Analysis: $27,940
Center for Progressive Young People “Apelsin”: $25,000
Center for Research on Social Perspectives in the Donbas: $39,776
Center for the Study of Social Processes and Humanitarian Issues: $30,060
Center UA: $26,920
Cherkasy Committee Voters of Ukraine: $34,993
Chernihiv Youth Educational Center “Initiative”: $27,930
Chernivtsi Committee of Voters of Ukraine: $29,920
“Civic Space” Information and Analytical Center: $31,535
Civil Initiative Support Center: $48,486
Democratic Initiatives Foundation: $73,464
Dniprovsky Center for Social Research: $25,000
Dniprovsky Center for Social Research: $25,000 (SIC from NED website)
Donetsk Press Club: $39,810
Donetsk Committee of Voters of Ukraine: $52,930
East European Democratic Center: $78,969
East European Democratic Center: $41,584
Foundation for Promotion of Civil Activity: $27,130
Garage Gang Collective: $37,637
Human Rights Training Center: $19,370
Independent Association of Broadcasters: $39,271
Independent Center of Political Researchers and Journalists: $33,611
Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation: $48,120
Institute of Mass Information: $34,470
Institute of Political Education: $47,994
Institute of the Republic: $29,990
International Republican Institute: $250,000
International Republican Institute: $35,000
International Republican Institute: $95,000
Journal Ji Analytical Center: $34,981
Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group: $47,200
Kherson Association of Journalists “South”: $31,675
Kherson Association of Journalists “South”: $39,578
Kherson Committee of Voters of Ukraine: $40,890
Krytyka Journal: $47,000
Luhansk Business Club “European Choice”: $32,000
Lutsk Center for Political Analysis and Electoral Consulting: $26,523
“Moloda Cherkaschyna” Coalition of Cherkassy Youth NGOs: $31,855
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs: $345,000
Odesa Committee of Voters of Ukraine : $41,851
Our House - Svatovschina: $21,945
Policy Association for an Open Society: $39,934
Polissya Foundation for International and Regional Research: $25,000
“Postup” Human Rights Center: $24,030
Razumkov Center for Economic and Political Research: $39,990
School for Policy Analysis of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy: $52,750
Smoloskyp: $36,294
Spilnyi Prostir Association: $50,000
Sumy Regional Committee of Youth Organizations: $56,260
Sumy Regional Organization “Bureau of Political Analysis”: $31,293
“Tamarisk” Center for Support of Civic and Cultural Initiatives: $30,890
Telekritika” $69,800
Ukrainian Catholic University: $35,000
Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research: $56,950
Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union: $47,994
Ukrainian Youth Association of Ukraine: $42,900
Vinnitsa Youth Organization “Nashe Podillya”: $52,046
Volyn Resource Center: $16,170
Youth Alternative: $42,143”
If one researches all these organizations one finds a complex web of corporate partnerships and relationships, private equity funding, State Department/CIA relationships, a whole host of other foundations and NGOs, the total resources of which are so large that funding is never an issue for “soft power projection” overseas which works on behalf of global elites.
And that’s just the “Western half” of the web of influence of financial elites. The web extends into all countries, including Russia, which has its own organizations and government that ultimately are also just fronts for the financial elite.
Not to mention the fact that the news and entertainment media is at the disposal of the global elites as well, and they also run the educational systems of the world, which provides them with countless intellectuals and indoctrinated young adults that are taken in by their agendas. The public in the East and West are just subjected to local versions of history and news which filter out all mention of the most important controlling influences, preserving the East/West thesis/antithesis. Case in point: the ongoing relationship between financial elites and both Eastern and Western political regimes, an example of which is Stalin’s relationship with the Rothschilds.
I know this post is a bit broader than the narrow topic of the “Internet Research Agency”, but I thought it would be informative for the lurker to see the agency in the context of the broader picture.
It would be interesting to see which Russian oligarchs the “Colonel” is associated with, and trace any backchannel ties they have to the West. Most Russian oligarchs, from what I understand, have established ties in the UK.