From disinformation to conspiracy theory. A troubling genesis (II)

Feb 21, 2020 Estonian Life No. 8 2020

Trumps' accusations that Ukraine was responsible for helping his opponent in the 2016 elections can be traced to some Ukrainians, but not to the type of organized election interference that the U.S. president alleges.

Many Ukrainians were deeply betrayed by Trump's public acceptance of Russia's annexation of Crimea. They were also apprehensive about Paul Manafort's relationship with pro-Russian Ukrainian government officials. In fact they knew that Manafort had made millions from lobbying for Ukraine not to be accepted into NATO and the EU.

The anti-Trump sentiment in Ukraine was not directed by any group or official establishment. It did not match the full-blown, systematic, aggressive attack to influence the elections launched by Moscow and controlled by Putin.

The Kremlin saw the scattered anti-Trump feelings in Ukraine as something to exploit. Thus it was easy to concoct an elaborate story which could be fed to a fertile field of believers – Trump, who fumed at reminders of the 3,000,000 Clinton votes above his total, Trump's sycophants and ultra-right media. The theories are usually fed trough businessmen, oligarchs, networks of intermediaries…. (Read more: Estonian Life No. 7 2020 paper issue or PDF/digileht)

Laas Leivat, Toronto

From disinformation to conspiracy theory. A troubling genesis (II)

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