Secret documents show Russian plot to stoke racial violence in America

[Mormolyce]

Secret documents show Russian plot to stoke racial violence in America

The Russians who interfered in the 2016 US presidential election are still at it — and this time, they’re trying to ignite racial violence in America and a partial collapse of the United States.

According to secret documents obtained by a Russian opposition group, hackers have discussed plans to stir up racial resentment in the United States in hopes of tearing American society apart. The operatives are apparently associates of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the man who set up a troll farm and was indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller for his role in 2016 meddling.

Those documents, shared with but not verified by NBC News on Monday night, are extremely troubling.

Prigozhin and his team of Russian trolls tried to inflame racial tensions during the 2016 cycle by operating several social media accounts that tried to discourage African Americans from voting, mainly by repeating messages of police violence and voter fraud.

But the apparent new plot, discussed as recently as 2018 ahead of the 2020 presidential election, goes much further. The documents reportedly contain shocking proposals such as sending black Americans to Africa “for combat prep and training in sabotage,” as well as targeting people who have previously been incarcerated and people “who have experience in organized crime groups ... for participation in civil disobedience actions.”

The goal, it seems, was to encourage the newly trained African Americans to create their own pan-African state in America’s South. That would “undermine the country’s territorial integrity and military and economic potential,” according to one document, by “destabiliz[ing] the internal situation in the US.”

It’s possible Prigozhin’s associates felt they had an opening to do this because President Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory “deepened conflicts in American society,” per one of the documents.

This would be quite the dastardly plan, but it’s important to note two things. First, there is no indication of how seriously the documents — titled “Development Strategy of a Pan-African State on US Territory” — and the plan overall have been received in Russia. It’s possible the set of proposals went absolutely nowhere and were viewed as too extreme (or ridiculous) even for Moscow.

Second, there’s little to no chance the plot would have worked even if the Kremlin had put it into action. Russian trolls could try to stir up anger among African Americans online, but it’s multiple steps too far to believe Moscow would find enough willing recruits for a takeover of America’s Southern states.

What the proposals do suggest, though, is that Russians with ties to President Vladimir Putin are plotting ways to weaken America ahead of the 2020 election. What’s worse, it looks like some of the thinking is much more violent than before.

Russia has set its sights on the 2020 election
It’s unclear if the racial violence plot was meant to disrupt the upcoming presidential election. But it’s possible, as top US officials have repeatedly said there’s a good chance Russia is gearing up to mess with the vote.

In the summer of 2018, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told a Washington audience that when it came to Russian cyberattacks on future elections, “the warning lights are blinking red,” adding that “the digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack.” He noted that other countries, including Iran, North Korea, and China, had planned attacks on the US too.

After the 2018 midterms, Coats and other top US intelligence officials said they’d seen no evidence that those elections had been hacked. But they did confirm that Russia had tried to influence them “by spreading false information about political processes and candidates, lying about their own interference activities, disseminating propaganda on social media, and through other tactics,” according to a statement released by the FBI.

The Boston Globe also reported at the time that the federal government had logged more than 160 instances of suspected interference since August 1, and that the number jumped to about 10 instances a day in the few weeks before the midterms.

And earlier this year, Coats told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee that Russia and the same other three nations would try to interfere in the next presidential race. “We assess that foreign actors will view the 2020 US elections as an opportunity to advance their interests,” he said. “We expect them to refine their capabilities and add new tactics as they learn from each other’s experiences and efforts.”

Based on the new documents, it seems like trying to foment massive racial violence in America could be viewed as a “new tactic” to be used before November 2020.

“Nothing should shock anymore, but this still does,” Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition politician, tweeted on Monday.

https://www.vox.com/2019/5/21/186337...l-violence-nbc

Just your daily reminder of the bleeding obvious, since the internet is full of the far right's lame gaslighting.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Yep not surprising the justification being they view the U.S as having done the same kinds of things. I’ve never viewed Russia as anything but an enemy.

Although content in the OP reminds me of a few posters, I’ve seen.

[Daedius]

I find it cute that Americans deem Russia "Ebil!!", when the American Government dips its dick into the affairs of lots of countries the world over. Just like the current issue of China's Huawei for spying, when the US does it even on allies.

Fucking hypocrites. You just don't like it when the favor is returned...

[Mormolyce]

How would they accomplish that?

It's a complete mystery lol.

[Darknessvamp]

How would they accomplish that?

Saying mean things on Twitter I guess.

[Seranthor]

Just your daily reminder of the bleeding obvious, since the internet is full of the far right's lame gaslighting.

Just think how quickly this would have stopped had the previous President said or did anything about it instead of buddying up to and mollifying the Russians. Every time I hear the bleeting about 'deem ebil Russians' I remember the mocking that the left and Obama himself leveled at Romney when he correctly pointed out the Russians as a threat.

[Shalcker]

Sending blacks to train in African states where Prigozhin's "Vagner" already trains locals? Well, i guess that is actually technically possible, even if unlikely. There are plenty of disgruntled blacks with military experience already as we've seen in previous large-scale riots.

But actually doing significant enough damage to US with that? That is clearly made up threat - as article rightfully points out.

- - - Updated - - -

Just think how quickly this would have stopped had the previous President said or did anything about it instead of buddying up to and mollifying the Russians.

But it wouldn't stop no matter what you did.

Every time I hear the bleeting about 'deem ebil Russians' I remember the mocking that the left and Obama himself leveled at Romney when he correctly pointed out the Russians as a threat.

You're constantly shifting between two extremes - absolute threat and backward non-entity, but reality is something in-between.

There are many things Russians are really doing, but results are largely inconsequential, nowhere near threatening anything seriously.

[Exeris]

If they actually manage this wouldn't that be very embarrassing for Americans?

To be manipulated that easily while you are well aware of their actions?

It's been a while since any of this was news after all.

[vitor210]

As an european, how do you americans manage to still have a cold war mentality in 2019? Always afraid of the russians and chinese, coming up with crazy conspiracy theories to explain your own failure of a society and putting the blame of the russians lmao

[rda]

https://www.vox.com/2019/5/21/186337...l-violence-nbc

"[...]

But the apparent new plot, discussed as recently as 2018 ahead of the 2020 presidential election, goes much further. The documents reportedly contain shocking proposals such as sending black Americans to Africa “for combat prep and training in sabotage,” as well as targeting people who have previously been incarcerated and people “who have experience in organized crime groups ... for participation in civil disobedience actions.”

The goal, it seems, was to encourage the newly trained African Americans to create their own pan-African state in America’s South. That would “undermine the country’s territorial integrity and military and economic potential,” according to one document, by “destabiliz[ing] the internal situation in the US.”

[...]"

Just your daily reminder of the bleeding obvious, since the internet is full of the far right's lame gaslighting.

By posting crackhead unsubstantiated BS like the above you HARM the ability to fight folk like Prigozhin.

Troll factories are real, yes. There should be means to deal with them, yes. But jumping on every wild stupidity with zero backing just because you have long lost the ability to think and reason just makes sure that when something real happens (unlike completely unsubstantiated claims in the quote), people will just be less likely to listen to you.

Western media are just complete idiots. They desensitize the public by continuously posting exaggerated nonsense. The society will pay a heavy price for that. And, yes, the OP and people like the OP are absolutely part of the problem. They don't know what's what anymore and just work as loudspeakers.

[derpkitteh]

well, the left has created enough of a victim culture in a lot of black people that it'd have no problem working.

there's too few white people to radicalize like this, because the ones that feel this way already involve their selves with KKK and other groups.

[Kokolums]

At this point, there is nothing anyone can do about it. America is already torn in half between democrats and republicans. Democrats already spent 2 years demonizing Russia and pretty much threatening war with Russia. Russia can just claim self defense and side with the republican party in a second US civil war. And China will side with the republicans too since they are buddies with Russia.

From a military perspective, the democrats approach to politics is mindboggling.

1. Democrats go out of their way to piss off Russia (and China by proxy) for 2 years.
2. Democrats engage in a bizarre "diversity and inclusion" program that is CLEARLY alienating republicans and whites to the point where those groups have lost all faith in the system.

Its like democrats desperately want world war 3 and to lose it.

[Vargulf the Happy Husky]

I find it cute that Americans deem Russia "Ebil!!", when the American Government dips its dick into the affairs of lots of countries the world over. Just like the current issue of China's Huawei for spying, when the US does it even on allies.

Fucking hypocrites. You just don't like it when the favor is returned...

we're the ones that ultimately have to deal with the rest of the worlds fuck ups, so yeah, a little off the books research may be required.

OT: it's obviously not hard to stoke racial tensions in this country. i don't think Russia is in control of the media, but the national media pokes the racial bear daily just to keep us watching so they get their ratings. probably wouldn't be too hard for Russia to weasel their way into finding a way to do something similar.

[Shibito]

Dem evul russians!!!!

[Themius]

we're the ones that ultimately have to deal with the rest of the worlds fuck ups, so yeah, a little off the books research may be required.

OT: it's obviously not hard to stoke racial tensions in this country. i don't think Russia is in control of the media, but the national media pokes the racial bear daily just to keep us watching so they get their ratings. probably wouldn't be too hard for Russia to weasel their way into finding a way to do something similar.

Mm and how is the media poking the "racial bear"?

[Vargulf the Happy Husky]

Mm and how is the media poking the "racial bear"?

we've talked about this brother Themius. one more recent example is the teachers pictured with the noose.

[Themius]

we've talked about this brother Themius. one more recent example is the teachers pictured with the noose.

Ah so concerned people over a symbol often used in conjunction with racism... are concerned it could be racist... hence an investigation and this is the media "poking" the racial bear.

So tell me your take is the media should never talk about racial issues unless they amount to killings?

[Vargulf the Happy Husky]

Ah so concerned people over a symbol often used in conjunction with racism... are concerned it could be racist... hence an investigation and this is the media "poking" the racial bear.

So tell me your take is the media should never talk about racial issues unless they amount to killings?

i say report em all, just make sure you get both sides of the story. not just the picture and the reaction of someone observing the situation as we are. have some integrity and don't just throw up a click bait story about racism without knowing for sure if its racist.

i don't want to derail this though, so bad russia! bad!

[Themius]

i say report em all, just make sure you get both sides of the story. not just the picture and the reaction of someone observing the situation as we are. have some integrity and don't just throw up a click bait story about racism without knowing for sure if its racist.

i don't want to derail this though, so bad russia! bad!

And if one half of the story decides to stay quiet just don't report? That's a rather stupid bar.

"This restaurant kicked me out for being gay after calling me a faggot in Virginia..."

and then the owner refuses to speak so you say

"Media shouldn't report on this, what if he was trying to serve him meatballs and he accidentally took it the wrong way! Even though... faggots aren't really sold in America.........."

So to you integrity isn't reporting on the story above but just ignoring it because the owner doesn't speak?

[Vargulf the Happy Husky]

And if one half of the story decides to stay quiet just don't report? That's a rather stupid bar.

and then the owner refuses to speak so you say

if that part is in the article, then you can derive that the restaurant owner is tucking his tail on this one because it's true.