Thread by @benimmo

Thread: looks like Russia's embassies are getting in on the act, attacking @Bellingcat for exposing the GRU agents accused of poisoning Skripal.

Remember that the embassies are an integral part of Russian campaigns.

Here's a case study: Russian "diplomatic" missions joining the troll farm in attacking Morgan Freeman.

medium.com/dfrlab/russias…

And another one: Russian embassies joining the campaign to discredit WADA, based on leaks hacked by the GRU.

medium.com/dfrlab/putinat…

It's worth breaking down Zakharova's comments a bit, too. As so often, they use dismiss, distort and distract, which are three of the standard 4 Ds.

This is the key point: dismiss and distract.

Accusing @bellingcat of being a front for intelligence looks aimed at discrediting them, and distracting attention from the main point, which is that they identified the suspects as GRU agents.

Don't get distracted.

Dismiss and distort: Zakharova says there was "no investigation" by Bellingcat.

But provides no evidence.

Because that would require proving a negative.

Whereas B'cat proved a positive. The GRU men's identities. As checked by guys like @ASLuhn.

telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/10/0…

Another distraction: accusing Bellingcat of being a UK front.

Remember "anti-Bellingcat"? They claimed to be concerned citizens debunking the findings on MH17.

Turned out they were Kremlin employees. A Russian front, so to speak.

medium.com/dfrlab/kremlin…

And, of course, distortion. Claiming that all the evidence exposing the identities of the suspects was faked.

Except that journalists travelled all the way to Siberia to verify... and verified.

bbc.com/news/world-eur…

Worth remembering that so far, the suspects' main defence has been that they were just tourists who went to Salisbury to see the cathedral, but got put off by the snow.