Thread: Russia's troll diplomacy goes to work over the #Skripal #Novichok poisoning. medium.com/dfrlab/putinat…
It starts with the foreign ministry, in Russian and English, pushing the long-established narrative that Russia gets unfairly blamed for everything. 
This is a variation on the "Russophobia" narrative, which has been a dominant theme since 2014. medium.com/dfrlab/putinat…
Tracking the spread of the tweets, the English-language one didn't go far. Some of the main amplifiers were embassy accounts (Denmark, Bahrain, FYROM).
Other amplifiers were well-known pro-Kremlin accounts, like Marcel Sardo, and this one, Varyagi. The spread of the Russian Foreign Ministry's post largely stayed in the known pro-Kremlin community: preaching to the converted.
Much the same applies to the Russian-language post. Some of the same amplifiers, e.g. Varyagi, and a clutch of embassy (Denmark again, plus Geneva UN mission) and ministry accounts.
The Russian Embassy in London chipped in with this post defending RT and continuing its feud with @thetimes (h/t @hzeffman and @mattkmoore). Marginally more reach, with 275 retweets by 19:00 yesterday.
This post goes further, through multiple stages of retweeting. There's one prominent diplomatic amplifier, the Russian embassy in Canada, but most of the key boosters are RT commentators (Keiser, Sleboda), and fringe / conspiracy sites.
The best performing post came from the Russian embassy in South Africa. Benny Hill being, presumably, a wholly appropriate tone for a diplomatic mission.
This had almost 600 retweets by 20:00 yesterday, and went through many more iterations. Again, though, the key accounts which kept it spreading were known pro-Kremlin activists and apologists - Engstrom, Beeley, Partisangirl, Phillips, and TeamTrumpRussia.
This wasn't a successful campaign. It largely stayed in the community of convinced Kremlin supporters. What it does show is the interlock between embassies, consulates, and trolls - something we've seen before. medium.com/dfrlab/russias…
Trolling like this, from official ministry and embassy accounts, is hardly a means of rhetorical de-escalation. Russia's embassies have a long history of undiplomatic posts (remember this one?). Expect more. / Thread ends.
