Putin’s Trolls

On the Frontlines of Russia’s Information War against the World

By: Jessikka Aro

Narrated by: Jessikka Aro

A chilling account of Russian information warfare, Putin’s Trolls exposes the individuals and organizations behind the Kremlin’s coordinated, military-style social media operations against the West.

In this courageous and unflinching book, award-winning journalist Jessikka Aro interweaves her own dramatic story as a target of Russian social media propaganda with accounts from many internationally known critics of the Kremlin, who share their own stories of being targeted by Russia’s multifaceted cyber warfare campaigns.

As Aro began to investigate the impact of the Kremlin’s troll operations outside of Russia, she learned that private citizens in many other countries were being victimized by Kremlin-designed information campaigns. These actions were frequently conducted through an organized “troll factory” led by Russia’s security and intelligence apparatus, using unregulated social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Many of the disinformation campaigns were centered around the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent occupation of the Crimean Peninsula.

©2022 Jessikka Aro (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Mandatory read

A must read for everyone IMO.
Not just about the trolls, but about all kinds of events regarding Russia’s subversive operations.

Un-nerving!

What I find un-nerving is the lack of critical thinking by those who fall for the trolls. We don’t teach deep thought in schools any longer and it shows. Further, the trolls are adept at using our very freedoms (i.e. of speech) to sway us to their unfounded perspective - one that is bought by the Russian (and Chinese) state for their own authoritarian ends. Perhaps a little bit too much on the Browder story which is set out in Freezing order - but otherwise a compelling, though un-nerving, read. Provides further extension to thoughts set out in Richard Stengel’s Info Wars.