re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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It would make him even more of a pariah but it would also ratchet up calls for a diplomatic solution by several orders of magnitude.

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Second, the half-life is just over 12 years so it very quickly loses efficacy and is either replaced or the max yield of the warhead steadily declines.

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nuclear/biological/chemical (NBC) environment

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(The most odd things in this thread get downvoted. I expressed no opinion on anything and only stated known facts. Yet, somehow that’s objectionable. Why? At least state your disagreement.)

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More and more, posts and commentaries on the Internet in Russia and even abroad are generated by professional trolls, many of whom receive a higher-than-average salary for perpetuating a pro-Kremlin dialogue online.

There are thousands of fake accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, and vKontakte, all increasingly focused on the war in Ukraine. Many emanate from Russia's most famous "troll factory," the Internet Research center, an unassuming building on St. Petersburg's Savushkina Street, which runs on a 24-hour cycle. In recent weeks, former employees have come forward to talk to RFE/RL about life inside the factory, where hundreds of people work grinding, 12-hour shifts in exchange for 40,000 rubles ($700) a month or more.

St. Petersburg blogger Marat Burkhard spent two months working at Internet Research in the department tasked with clogging the forums on Russia's municipal websites with pro-Kremlin comments. In the following interview, he describes a typical day and the type of assignments he encountered.

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A TYPICAL ASSIGNMENT

Topic: NATO troops are embedded with Ukrainian armed forces

Keywords: ukraine news, russia and ukraine, ukraine policy, ukraine, NATO, PMC (private military company)

Task: Raise this topic on 35 municipal forums

Work begins after an initial post, written by a troll in a different department, is published on the LiveJournal social-networking site under the username flcrbgrjn. The post argues that foreign mercenaries are fighting on the side of Ukrainian soldiers and links to a video that purports to show two American soldiers in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

"The Kyiv junta regularly sics its media on Russia, and they lie shamelessly and recklessly. They argue Russian armed forces are fighting on the territory of Ukraine, but they refuse to provide any proof (because there isn't any). But when it comes to the matter of Ukrainian armed forces, the American puppets entrenched in Kyiv say there's no evidence that foreign mercenaries and Western intelligence agents are joining their ranks -- they lie and don't even blush!"

This post soon appears, according to an alphabetized list, on the Astrakhan city forum. Then the Villain Troll, working under the name Yana24, begins the troika's work, posting a comment that takes issue with flcrbgrjn's post:

"What NATO mercenaries are you talking about? So they filmed some kind of American there, so what? It's still not clear what they were doing there. Russia as usual blames Ukraine for the things it's doing itself. Everyone's been talking about your own mercenaries for a long time, and you still haven't pulled them out!"

The Link Troll then angrily responds to the Villain, rejecting Yana24's argument and linking to a second report on the alleged presence of American soldiers in Mariupol:

"Did you read the text at all? If you're up to date with the topic, you should know how much evidence has already been provided that shows the war in Ukraine is continuing because the West and Poroshenko are reluctant to pursue peace. They've found things belonging to Western soldiers, and now they've found the soldiers themselves. Have they found proof that Russian troops are in Ukraine? Or troops themselves? No!"

Next in line is the Picture Troll, who accuses the West of hypocrisy and adds a demotivator for extra emphasis:

"The West is so two-faced: in every discussion about the Ukrainian conflict the West blames Russia even as it's providing the Ukrainian armed forces with PMC soldiers representing NATO. It's a policy of double standards!"

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Make sure to watch the "arm blowed off" video that was offered repeatedly today

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