Share this page!

John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Twitter logo
Apr 3 • 4 tweets • 4 min read
NEW: Putin ally, autocrat Viktor Orban just declared victory in #hungaryelections.

The news is surely being welcomed in Moscow.

Dark times for Hungary & Europe.

By @robpicheta & @balintbardi
cnn.com/2022/04/03/eur…
2/ Orban's victory speech had a list of"opponents."

Including Zelensky.

Awful.
3/ #Orban pulled out all the stops to win.

Gerrymandering, legalizing a type of voter fraud...

Even using Hungary's COVID response to push propaganda & lies about his opponents.

By Matt Apuzzo & @b_novak
nytimes.com/2022/03/31/wor…
4/ Orban's divisiveness inside the European Union has been a huge gift to #Putin on Ukraine.

Now that he's secured a re-election, he'll surely do everything he can to frustrate 🇪🇺 efforts to help the people of Ukraine.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with John Scott-Railton

John Scott-Railton Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @jsrailton

John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Apr 5
Selection goes into what gets filmed & posted from #Ukraine. Somebody is always making choices.

This selection effect that biases what we see. But that's only the beginning. 1/
2/ Social media shows us more of what we like.

If we & people we follow prefer seeing destroyed Russian tanks & Ukrainian successes, we'll be shown more of them.

Like it or not, the algorithm designed to *not* give us a balanced, representative sample of material.
3/ The OSINT ecosystem is an inspiring force for truth & accountability.

But it doesn’t mean that we come away from our feeds with a balanced, realistic assessment of the direction of the whole war.

Analysis & analytical biases are hard.
Read 4 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Apr 4
BREAKING: bodies in Bucha were visible in satellite imagery for weeks.

Directly rebuts Russia's claim that bodies only appeared after they left.

By @malachybrowne @bottidavid @heytherehaley
nytimes.com/2022/04/04/wor… ImageImageImage
2/ Gaps in information during war are fertile soil for Russian dezinformatsia.

Part of what's so powerful about visual investigations & OSINT is that they accelerate truth & reduce the space Kremlin propagandists have to work with.
3/ Many OSINT techniques have genesis in past wars & crises. Some groups & visual investigations teams, too.

Yet there's a ton of exciting progress & maturing going on right now.

One key driver? Rapid hires satellite imagery like
@Maxar's daily releases.
Read 6 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Apr 3
If you haven't noticed, these autocrats run a mutual aid society.

Orban's win helps Putin.

And of course, success for for Putin helps Assad, Kadyrov, and Lukashenko, etc. etc. 1/
2/ The great autocratic cousinate needs a global ecosystem of enablers.

From private banks & libel lawyers, to spyware & surveillance firms, political consultants, lobbyists, investors, former lawmakers, media people..

This ecosystem took a blow when sanctions hit...
3/...But Orban, untouched by the sting of sanctions, continues to pump money into the vast influence industry.

Great overview of what that looks like in the US
by @kenvogel & @b_novak nytimes.com/2021/10/04/us/…
Read 5 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Apr 2
Incredibly disturbing footage is surfacing showing bound bodies left behind by Russian forces.

Clearly, it's time for the UN & other international bodies to send in evidence teams to work these sites.
You should not be surprised.

#Putin signaled his plans to the world.

Now, ask yourself what atrocities are as yet unknown.. evidence still hidden behind Russian lines.
How many more mass graves will Putin visit upon #Ukraine before he stops this evil misadventure?
Read 4 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Mar 24
NEW: Rolling Stone reports that a #Kremlin-connected businessman paid for swastika graffiti in #Ukraine.

Goal? Help #Putin create a pretext for invasion.

Absolutely wild story by @seth_hettena rollingstone.com/politics/polit…
2/The man who bankrolled the money-for-nazi-graffiti plot also reportedly has connections with both Trump & Giuliani.

Bizarre.
3/ A "swastika graffiti plot" will sound familiar to students of Russian disinformation.

The KGB did something very similar to try push W.Germany out of NATO in 1959-60.

Didn't work, but kicked off a global campaign of antisemitism.

By @michaeldweiss
cnn.com/2017/10/11/opi…
Read 5 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Mar 22
Toxic, unoriginal people keep cracking the same code: be provocative and infuriating, then rage farm your way to a larger audience.

The key ingredient: the rest of us, when we Quote Tweet & dunk.

We are their growth model. 1/
2/ Look at the tweet histories of tastelessly provocative people.

Say, around #Ukraine

Notice something interesting?

You'll probably find that a *lot* of "so and so is now talking about ME!!"

The glee is barely disguised. That's the 🔑.
3/ Take a substacker who, by design or duncery, keeps riling up people that care about #Ukraine.

Most mock his buffoonery, yet do so by... giving him twitter engagement.

To him, that attention --> subscribers --> 💰💰
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @jsrailton has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @jsrailton!

Read all threads by @jsrailton

:(