Thread by @benimmo

Thread: the @wada_ama hacking and leaking is a case study in how the Kremlin's full-spectrum propaganda machine works.

medium.com/dfrlab/putinat…

In July 2016, WADA published the McLaren report, confirming Russian state manipulation of the doping control process.

An embarrassment for the Kremlin, but presumably not a security threat.

In August-September 2016, GRU agents deployed to Rio and Lausanne to hack into WADA email systems.

And pose with Russian athletes.

According to the Dutch, who detained the GRU hacking team in April this year as they tried to hack the OPCW, they'd also tried to hack wifi systems in Malaysia, around the time of the #MH17 investigation.

On September 13, 2016, a group calling itself "Fancy Bears" started publishing emails hacked from WADA.

They focused on therapeutic use exemptions given to US stars including the Williams sisters to claim massive US doping.

It's really amazing how fast the leaks got picked up by sites like News-Front...

Hint: according to a whistleblower interviewed by @steffendobbert and Die Zeit, News-Front is a front for Russian "secret services" (unspecified).

zeit.de/digital/intern…

Baltnews got in on the act, too.

Thanks to @IngaSpringe and @rebaltica, we know that they're owned by the same agency as owns Sputnik, but seem too shy to say so.

You might think the purpose of the hacks was to make the West and WADA look bad, and Russia look good in comparison.

You'd be right.

Here comes Sputnik, with an interview which didn't feature the interviewee saying the word "hypocrisy" +anywhere+.

Here's the Russian embassy in London, and oh look: there's that word "hypocrisy" again.

Another troll embassy got in on the act, too: the Russian embassy in South Africa.

"Double standards" being the claim, and what do you know? It sources the article to RT.

Sportsman that he is, President Putin himself got involved.

It's that "hypocrisy" word again.

Source: en.special.kremlin.ru/events/preside…

At the other end of the scale, the troll farm got in on the act.

Here's IRA troll @nataturn, pinging an article about the hacks to a whole series of journalists, including @buileshuibhne, @TEnglishSport and @erinstrout.

What was the article?

It was this one, by none other than the legendary @jenn_abrams, one of the troll farm's most notorious creations.

The "hypocrisy" claim went on for months. Here's RT in November and December 2016.

Upsum: it's a whole ecosystem. GRU hackers, leak sites, politicians, embassies, overt sites like RT and Sputnik, covert ones like Baltnews, validators, and the troll farm, all pushing the same message.

For responses to work, they need to consider that. / Thread ends.