It's not really that surprising considering Russia has a century long supremacy in this area: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_measures https://en.wikipedia

It's not really that surprising considering Russia has a century long supremacy in this area: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_measures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_measures Nowadays it seems to lack some of the professionality of former times and sometimes looks more like hobby projects of Kremlin figures and Oligarchs to curry some favour. Tradition, local competency, low cost and risk due to social platforms and online news make it a good fit for present day Russia.