Their article stated that up 1998-1999 comments and observations on the Russian internet supported liberal and democratic views. After 2000 the vast majority of these postings were of a anti-democratic, totalitarian nature.
This radical shift was seen to be he handiwork of the Russian state security services. It was thought that the security services at the time saw a huge surge of Russians having access to these forums, whereas before only certain sectors of society could visit these sites. (Pikemalt EE# 45 8.nov 2019 paber-või PDF/digelehes)
Laas Leivat, Toronto
