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The Internet never seems to tire of this clip, from a RadPod interview with Russia watcher Keir Giles in January 2023:
We were interviewing him about his book, “Russia’s War On Everybody,” and he made a comment on the characteristics that unite the most ardent Russian propagandists.
Here is the transcript from that clip above:
“The pattern unfortunately that seems to underlie a lot of the most enthusiastic Russian propagandists is that they have been dealing with severely damaged personalities and personal failure for most of their lives.
In fact, the overlap between the number of Russian propagandists who also turn out to be convicted sex offenders is absolutely startling. There are some deep-seated fundamental personality flaws that actually predispose people to being available to be made use of by Russia.
And if you look back at the KGB handbooks for recruiting agents of influence, agents of subversion, or indeed propagandists, then you can see very clearly that Russia understood the misfits make the good targets - the people with a grudge, the people who feel they've been treated unfairly by the world because they've been consistent failures, and therefore seek revenge. And the revenge coming through so strongly in some of the verbal attacks that you hear from the trolls, from the so-called independent journalists, the ones pushing the Russian propaganda lines, because the bile and the vitriol and the hatred that they pour out when they're talking about people who criticize Russia, it's extremely personal. And it's plainly tapping deeply into their own personality defects.”-Keir Giles on RADICALIZED Truth Survives podcast, January 10, 2023
… Tapping deeply into their own personality defects…
Among the deviant set, let’s see who has taken selfies in Moscow recently:
Errol Musk — raised his stepdaughter from the age of 4, has two children with her, despite the 41-year age difference
Andrew Tate — 59 charges in the UK for rape, sex trafficking, assault, and indecent images of children; Romania indicted Tate for trafficking minors, sex with a minor, money laundering, and witness tampering, including coercing a victim into video chat sex acts for financial gain
Tommy Robinson — right-wing provocateur was handed a five-year stalking protection order in 2021 for threatening a journalist
Also included among the pro-Russian propagandists’ cabal:
Russell Brand — the pro-Russian shill’s trial for three counts of rape, three charges of sexual assault, and one allegation of indecent assault, with six women alleging crimes dating from 1999 to 2009, is set to begin in London on October 12
Scott Ritter — the former UN weapons inspector was convicted 15 years ago for unlawful contact with a minor in an online underage sex sting. Ritter now works with Russian-state media
In addition to the deviant influencer set, the number of pro-Russian politicians trailed by corruption is vast and an existential threat to every remaining democracy.
Obviously, Donald Trump, who became president in 2016 with the assistance of the Russian military, tops the list.
But as the former president of Estonia told me four years ago, there are many more.
Toomas Ilves said on a RADICALIZED Truth Survives podcast: “All too many politicians are bought.”
During the interview, he reached back to his bookcase to show us the best book written about Russia - it was Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather.”
Ilves was president when Putin attacked Estonia with active measures in 2007. and in fact, Estonia was ground zero for Russian cyber aggression with DDOS attacks.
It’s important to listen to the voices of former Soviet-ruled states. If we had been paying attention to them, the 2016 election could have gone very differently.
Currently, the pro-Russian political threats in Europe include a front-running populist in France who should be in prison, a German populist trailed by fraud, and a Romanian presidential candidate who was just arrested.
Among them:
Marine Le Pen — a pro-Russian French politician, Le Pen was convicted for embezzling millions in EU funds and received a five-year-ban on holding office, which was later backdated clearing a path for her to run for president in 2027. Le Pen, who is reliably sympathetic toward Moscow, and her National Rally party received a loan in 2014 from a Kremlin-linked bank. Her party was turned down by French banks due to its anti-Semitic past, and present. Le Pen’s father, Jean Marie, who founded the extremist party, had close ties to former Nazi collaborators and multiple convictions for Holocaust denial and minimizing Nazi crimes. Jordan Bardella, the president of National Rally and Le Pen’s likely prime minister if she wins in 2027, was just exposed for his own anti-Semitic past, according to a months’ long investigation by Mediapart.
Nigel Farage — trailed by a history of undisclosed donations from a convicted fraudster and scrutiny for illegal campaign funds, the British Reform UK politician is under parliamentary and police investigation. Most recently, an undercover investigation reveals Farage knowingly accepting foreign funding, which is illegal under UK election laws. More details here from my colleagues at Byline Times.
Nathan Gill — Farage is linked to the former leader of Reform UK in Wales, Nathan Gill, who is in prison after he pleaded guilty to bribery charges relating to pro-Russian statements he made in European parliament. Gill admitted to eight counts of bribery between December 2018 and July 2019, taking money from pro-Russian agents. Gill, who had multiple meetings with pro-Russian leaders in 2018, organized by Kremlin agents, has close ties to Farage — dating back more than a decade — from UKIP, Brexit Party, and Reform UK.
Calin Georgescu — Romania’s former presidential candidate Calin Georgescu was arrested yesterday by law enforcement authorities in a 1.1 million euro ($1.3 million) fraud case. Georgescu was leading the 2024 presidential vote with an ultranationalist, pro-Russian platform. But Romania’s constitutional court annulled initial results and ordered a rerun after Romanian intelligence identified a Russian-backed social media campaign to promote Georgescu. (Author’s note: sound familiar, Americans?)
Viktor Orban’s lingering regime — news is breaking fast out of Hungary, as PM Péter Magyar reports today: “From the prosecutor’s files, it has now officially come to light that the Orbán government was an economic and political mafia, in other words, a criminal organisation. Soon, it will become clear how long these mafiosi can maintain their omertà, the code of silence.”
Magyar Péter (Ne féljetek)@magyarpeterMPFrom the prosecutor’s files, it has now officially come to light that the Orbán government was an economic and political mafia, in other words, a criminal organisation. Soon, it will become clear how long these mafiosi can maintain their omertà, the code of silence.6:45 AM · Sep 30, 2026 · 42.2K Views72 Replies · 287 Reposts · 1.67K LikesMagyar also reported: “The court has placed @PM_ViktorOrban’s former minister and current member of Parliament, Miklós Seszták, in pre-trial detention. This is the first time since 1990 that a former minister has been arrested. He is suspected of bribery involving 12 billion forints.”
Alice Weidel — co-leader of the extremist, racist party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), Weidel was investigated for receiving payments from foreign donors. According to a 2017 report from the Guardian, her “office in southern Germany received a total of €130,000 (£110,000) in individual payments of 9,000 Swiss francs between July and September 2017. A joint investigation by the German broadcasters WDR and NDR and the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung traced the donations to a Swiss pharmaceutical company. The payment reference was reportedly ‘election campaign donation for Alice Weidel’.”
As investigative reporter Christo Grozev wrote on Twitter yesterday:
“What the Kremlin is doing with the AfD now is an almost exact replica of what it did with Dodik, Russia’s trojan horse in Bosnia & Herzegovina, in 2014. In September 2014, Dodik was summoned to Moscow and ‘offered’ a ‘direct’ and ‘lucrative’ Gazprom deal, - just weeks before the elections.
For Russia, Gazprom/Norstream/Southstream were never economic projects. They were and are political weapons. Incredible that so many in Germany are even considering wading back into that river twice.”
As former president of Estonia, Toomas Ilves, told me all those years ago: “All too many politicians can be bought.”
It does, however, appear Russia has been doing much of the buying.
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