Read on Twitter
1. I’ve been looking at the sock puppet/alias account of Russian Military Intelligence (GRU) Officer Konstantin Kilimnik over the past few days and tweeting out the posts chronologically because it’s interesting to see disinformation in action from 8/17 on - what it looks like.
2. The account was first flagged on page 996 of the bi-partisan Senate Select Committee On Intelligence beginning at footnote 695 on page 112: https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf “Kilimnik’s alias Twitter account @/PBaranenko, retweeted a story by Sputnik reporter Lee Stranahan...”
3. The footnote goes on to say “...who used the Politico as the basis to legitimize his claim that DNC contractor Alexandra Chalupa and the Ukrainian government was ‘THE REAL 2016 Election interference” Oddly within a few weeks 7/18 8/18 @POTUS posted similar. Trump/Sputnik/GRU
4. The SSCI report referencing Kilimnik’s alias continues on p119. The report states, “Starting in 2017, and continuing at least until late 2019, Kilimnik used an alias Twitter account registered under a false persona to push a variety of false information, much of which...
5. “centerd on efforts to discredit the Russia investigations and assert that Ukraine, not Russia, had intervened in the 2016 election.” F/N 751 (One previous footnote 747 also mentions the alias account elating to Kilimnik’s RT of a Posobiec tweet of a Solomon article)
6. This is important for a number of reason. First, the SSCI report - bi-partisan - concludes that the efforts to pin election interference on the previous administration was unequivocally false. You will still see @RonJohnsonWI and others try to push this false information.
7. Second, because this is one part of the evidence that ties the GRU directly to the efforts to spread false information about 2016 for the purposes of undermining now Democratic nominee @JoeBiden and influencing the 2020 elections in favor of @POTUS.
8. Third, this effort to cover Russia’s tracks and blame the previous administration began four years ago - at least demonstrating the length some of these operations can take and how they can morph from one goal, coverup to another, influencing a second election.
9. Fourth, the Kilimnik alias shows actual Kremlin intervention in action in real time. The alias account last tweeted 4 days ago. Publicly. This is what foreign interference looks like. They aren’t all bots with poor english that insult. They can be actual Russian military.
10. Before I wrap up this thread, I’ll post the contents of the very lengthy footnote 751. It’s on page 119 here: https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf
11. “Kilimnik tweets under the alias Petro Baranenko (@P/Baranenko). Twitter @/PBaranenko (account information showing account creation email of borattulukbaev@/yahoo.com). While the @/PBaranenko account was registered in February 2017, the earliest teeet the Committee obtained..
12. was from August 1, 2017. A separate account in true name, @/k_kilimnik, is no longer active. This account could have been affiliated with Kilimnik, but the committee could not confirm that it was. In 2018 and 2019, Kilimnik used his @/PBaranenko account to tweet a variety of
13. pro-Russian themes, including false information about NotPetya, Bill Brieser, Malaysian Airlines flight MH-17, and the 2014 Maydan protests. For example, Kilimnik retweeted a claim “[t]he staked are rising as they try to keep the truth about Browder from coming out.” Tweet,
14. Tweet @/PBaranenko, September 15, 2018. (retweet of @/TFL1728). Kilimnik also retweeted a tweet disparaging Bellingcat and Eliot Higgins, using #Bellingcrap and #MH17 and attacking an image purporting to show that part of Bellingcat’s analysis of the MH-17 BuK launcher was
15. “made up.” Tweet, @/PBaranenko, September 17, 2018 (retweet of @/Deus_Abscondis). On September 23, 2018, Kilimnik retweeted the same account, which purported to show that the serial number depicted in images of missile parts related to the MH-17 shoot down was a “forgery.”
16. Tweet, @/PBarnenko, September 23, 2018 (retweet of @/Deus_Abscondis). Kilimnik also repeatedly pushed false information claiming that those Maydan participants killed in the protest were shot by “Georgian snipers” as part of a “false flag.” Tweet, @/PBaranenko, March 18, 2019
17. (retweet of @/ekenaevdokikov7).”
End footnote.
Keep the disinformation put out by Kremlin agents and some elected officials in mind. It will come up again before the election. And corporate media will both-sides it despite the false nature of the election interference info
End footnote.
Keep the disinformation put out by Kremlin agents and some elected officials in mind. It will come up again before the election. And corporate media will both-sides it despite the false nature of the election interference info
