How Putin quietly took over Russian social media

After the 2011–2012 protest wave, the Kremlin learned from the networked opposition and began rebuilding control over the digital public sphere. Loyalist communities, troll operations, and pressure on platforms turned scattered interference into a managed system.

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Related topic

• Bot Army: Why the Kremlin Fails at Soft Power — Carnegie.ru • 2015-07-21

Related section

• Warning! An Army of Russian Trolls Has Invaded TikTok — The Moscow Times • 2020-12-18
• Anonymous Telegram Channels Are Shaping Russia's Daily Life — The Moscow Times • 2020-09-28
• From Kremlin Web Brigades to Russian Troll Factories — VSquare • 2017-12-28
• Do Revolutions Grow Out of Social Media? — Carnegie Endowment • 2015-10-22

Same period

• What Sparked Moldova's Second Maidan? — Carnegie Endowment • 2015-05-25
• Anti-Putin Activist Complains of Security Harassment — News24 • 2015-04-29
• Atlantic feature cites Klishin on Putin’s media machine — The Atlantic • 2015-04-21
• The Atlantic zitiert Klishin zur Medienmaschine Putins — The Atlantic • 2015-04-21

Timeline in this language

• Newer: The Listening Post: Kremlin’s Troll Army — Al Jazeera English • 2015-03-14
• Older: TV Rain launched "Our Soldiers" civilian investigation — TV Rain • 2014-08-27

Recent in this language

• Putin-Macron talks and the Russia expertise gap — The Moscow Times • 2022-02-14
• Mass protests: lessons from a decade — The Moscow Times • 2021-12-10
• The Kremlin Is Coming for Media One by One — and Society Is Helpless to Stop It — The Moscow Times • 2021-08-24
• The Magic Mirror of Russian Public Opinion — The Moscow Times • 2021-07-12

More from this archive

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• Let's Wait Until After the Elections — The Moscow Times • 2021-05-17
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• Dekoder on Sputnik V approval and Russian vaccine messaging — Dekoder • 2021-04-01