‘In One Another We Trust’: My Latest ‘Hot Type’ Column in Byline
In my weekly Hot Type column in Byline, I write how defending against Soviet-era tactics aimed at destroying the West from within, citizens in democratic nations must treat trust as sacred
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In today’s Hot Type column for Byline Supplement, I focus on the sacred nature of trust:
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Below is an excerpt from today’s Hot Type:
Hot Type: In One Another We Trust
In order to defend against Soviet-era tactics aimed at destroying the West from within, citizens in democratic nations must treat trust as sacred, argues Heidi Siegmund Cuda
When I became friends with two-time Alexei Navalny campaign volunteer Dmitrii Kovegin he shared something with me that I never forgot: “Putin’s cruelty originates from envy,” he said. “He wants to rob our humanity.”
Kovegin told Byline Supplement that Putin has always envied the United States’ trust in one another.
“Trust is crucial to American society,” he explained. “Compassion to another person would not be able [to exist] if there would be no trust.”
Part of how the West was lost in an information war was that old hatreds were ginned up for a new era. And wherever those hatreds were being sold like snake oil in a fever dream, you could find Russian operatives.
Now, some of those paid operatives have all access passes to the White House press pool, because Trump needs new Ministers of Propaganda.
As I make my way through European countries, observing that functional democracies still exist in 2025, I want to shout from a bullhorn:“Don’t let Putin break your trust! Your immigrant neighbor is a good person! Your public schools, health care, and paved roads are to be cherished! Don’t be like America and sleepwalk into fascism!”
But instead, I have quiet conversations with citizens, who are sad and confused about how America could have fallen prey to Putin and his US collaborators. They love America, and just don’t get it.
A Russian Spy Cell
The subject of trust is fresh on my mind as I learned about a Russian spy ring exposed by Austrian intelligence. My colleague Deitmar Pichler, the founder of the Disinformation Resilience Network, told Byline Supplement:
“In Vienna, a Russian spy cell operated by a Bulgarian woman spray-painted ‘pro-Ukrainian’ slogans alongside far-right symbols, with the intention of portraying Ukraine and its supporters as fascist—perfectly aligned with Russian propaganda. In France, a Russian cell painted Stars of David on buildings in a Jewish neighbourhood to incite tensions between communities following the October 7 Hamas attacks.
“These operations are not only designed to cause conflict on the ground, but also to gain traction online—on social media, or even through mainstream media coverage.”
And pointedly, they’re designed to cheaply destroy community trust, instil fear of the ‘other’, and manipulate reality.
Pichler said the operations are often carried out by what he calls ‘throwaway agents’ — amateurs who might be friends with the Russian spies, who may get a call and for a few dollars or crypto, perform the cheap tricks. Some may not even know who they are working for and many are not Russian.
To further confuse the narrative, he said, Russia does not simply push a single theme.
“It floods the information space with multiple messages, stories, and themes designed to harm, divide, weaken, and confuse,” he said. “A wide variety of techniques are used to achieve these goals. Unfortunately, it appears that we are still several steps behind in detecting and countering them.”
What it indicates to him is that the playbook of Soviet operations to manipulate the information space, subvert democracies, and exploit and amplify the tensions and fractures in democratic societies, is still in use.
“Digital operations such as troll farms and fake websites that mimic established media outlets are simply an addition, not a replacement for the ‘old school’ Soviet ‘Active Measures’,” Pichler said.
Unfreedom When Exposing Russia
Lawfare directed at reporters is another attempt to thwart reality.
“We have a situation in the West where there is unlimited freedom of speech when it comes to spreading Russian talking points, disinformation, and anti-Western democracy narratives, but limited freedom of speech when it comes to exposing the propagandists and their operations—because they tend to sue or intimidate their critics,” Pichler told Byline Supplement…
And just as in the Soviet era, Russians are skilled at recruiting or persuading individuals in the West to act as mouthpieces for their narratives.
As corporate media parrots a new wave of propagandists spewing pro-Kremlin talking points, it’s up to the intelligence agencies of still-functioning democracies and investigative journalists to continue the hard work of exposing all individuals who are funded by the Russian state to alter reality…
Still An Optimist
I spent some time listening to a recent Channel 4 interview with Christo Grozev, an independent investigative reporter from Bulgaria whose open-source investigative work exposed spies linked to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in 2018 and Alexei Navalny in 2020.
Due to his work, he told interviewer Krishnan Guru-Murthy, he can no longer live with his family and is uncertain about the circumstances that led up to the death of his father — who died shortly after posting one of his son’s reports on Facebook. He is on Putin’s wanted list. He found himself at the center of a plot, after a Bulgarian-spy ring was sent by the Kremlin to target and kidnap him. The assailants were arrested and recently convicted in the UK. He had to leave Vienna, where he had lived for years, because he feared for his life.
He told Guru-Murthy: “You never know how an empire is going to fall. They always fall in most unpredictable ways.”
He explained that dictators can become soft when they’re fed a steady diet of lies by their own loyalists, and the EU should be looking for those soft spots to end Russian aggression.
Despite all he’s been through, Grozev said he’s still an optimist.
Optimism and trust, what the world needs now.
To learn more about the work of Dietmar Pichler, go to Disinformation Resilience Network.
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The above is an excerpt from my Hot Type column. As always, I ask those who can afford to support a small global team of investigative reporters to please take out a subscription to Byline Supplement.
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More info about Bette Dangerous - This magazine is written by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter/producer, author, and veteran music and nightlife columnist. She is the cohost of RADICALIZED Truth Survives, an investigative show about disinformation and is part of the Byline Media team. Thank you for your support of independent investigative journalism.
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