File:Donald Trump and Putin's Russian Trolls (33422673781).jpg

FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller reportedly obtained a search warrant for records of the "inauthentic" accounts Facebook shut down early September 2017 and the targeted ads these accounts purchased during the 2016 election. Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, told MSNBC earlier this month that he wants to know how sophisticated the Russian-bought ads were — in terms of their content and targets — to determine whether they had any help from the Trump campaign. Facebook said in its initial statement that about 25% of the ads purchased by Russians during the election "were geographically targeted," and many analysts have found it difficult to believe that foreign entities would have had the kind of granular knowledge of American politics necessary to target specific demographics and voting precincts.

The notorious Kremlin-linked ‘troll farm’ and the Russians trying to take it down By David Filipov October 8 2017 [1]

And then there is Russia, which has both a long history of disinformation campaigns and a domestic political culture largely untroubled by concerns of truth. It has taken to the dark side of social media like a rat to a drainpipe, not just for internal use, but for export, too. Vladimir Putin’s regime has used social media as part of surreptitious campaigns in its neighbours, including Ukraine, in France and Germany, in America and elsewhere.

"Toward the end of his twelve-day trip to Asia, President Trump tweeted, “When will all the haters and fools out there realize that having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. There [sic] always playing politics — bad for our country. I want to solve North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, terrorism, and Russia can greatly help!” Trump has a point. Russia can, in theory, “greatly help.” But it probably won’t, at least not “greatly.” It won’t help because Vladimir Putin and his regime don’t think helping America is in their national interest." by JONAH GOLDBERG November 17, 2017 [2] The Real Culprit Behind North Korea’s Missile Threat May Be Vladimir Putin [3]

Russia’s Dead End: An Insider’s Testimony from Gorbachev to Putin --- a review of the 2017 book by Andrei Kovalev. [4]

"Russian leaders no longer venerate Lenin of the Bolshevik revolution, but they embrace the Soviet legacy. It lives on in the war in Ukraine, the search for enemies, the negation of law and the hatred fanned by the state."