Kremlin's 'chief troll' boasted last year of 'insane' plan to elect Trump

[Tommy_Carcetti]

Source: Rawstory

The so-called chief voice and troll for the Kremlin on Twitter laid out what appears to be a confession of Russia collusion just four days after President Donald Trumps election.

Kremlin propagandist Konstantin Rykov boasted on Facebook that he helped recruit Trump in 2012 to run for president as part of an effort to reshape the global order, reported the Washington Monthly.

*****

What was our idea with Donald Trump? Rykov posted. For four years and two days .. it was necessary to get to everyone in the brain and grab all possible means of mass perception of reality. Ensure the victory of Donald in the election of the US President. Then create a political alliance between the United States, France, Russia (and a number of other states) and establish a new world order.

******

Rykov claimed Trump himself suggested using data firm Cambridge Analytica, which is under investigation in both the U.S. and Britain for its election activities, to micro-target persuadable voters on social media.


Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/kremlins-chief-troll-boasted-last-year-of-insane-plan-to-elect-trump-and-laid-out-evidence-mueller-still-probing/

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The Rykov story continues to make press. Stay tuned.

[dalton99a]

1. We now have a start date for the puppet

2012

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. I think probably before then, but certain elements kicked into play in 2012.

For decades, Trump was long beholden to Russian money to keep up his billionaire image.

I think certain circles in Russia knew that and they knew it could be used to their advantage.

Trump teased the possibility of a presidential run in 2012 (and had flirted with, and briefly ran under the Reform Party, presidential runs before that). What everyone over here thought was nothing more than a shameless attempt to promote The Apprentice and other Trump related business was viewed as a legitimate possibility in Russia.

Trump was lured over to Russia in 2013 with the promise of lucrative business deals (under the guise of the Miss Universe pageant). It's possible at that time that additional kompromat against him was gained in order to encourage him to run for President in 2016, but as a legitimate run this time and not as a joke.

Then elements had to kick into gear to try to promote him as a legitimate candidate to the American people, and that's where the cyber element kicked in.

[dalton99a]

3. +1

[xor]

4. Why would he boast about it on a public forum?

I always assume anything done/said on this level is some sort of strategic or tactical move. Need to know more about this dude's personality to help determine if this was a blunder or a chess move.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

5. Rykov's either a member of the shamelessly infamous school of thought a la Roger Stone....

......or perhaps he's throwing counter measures out there to shield others who were also involved.

Either way, I don't think he's just some random guy blowing smoke.

And his claim that Trump DM'ed him on Election Night 2012 sounds shady as all get-out, but he did post the picture on Instagram that evening. And he also posted this on Election Night 2012:

Link to tweet

Translated as:

Konstantin Rykov

@ rykov

Romney uncovered. Congratulated Obama. I wonder what Trump will say?

10:00 PM - 6 Nov 2012

Now...why would Donald Trump be the first person on his mind back in 2012?

(Also interesting is that one of the replies to his Tweet--showing Trump's tweets that night--is from Yulya Alferova, who ushered him around Moscow in 2013 along with her then-husband, oligarch Artem Klyushin. Both of them heavily pushed the prospect of a Trump presidential run over social media shortly after the pageant.)

[xor]

7. Oh yeah..

I went looking for some pre-Trump information that mentions his name, and he seems like a busy little fellow. I see where you're getting the Roger Stone comparison based on what I've read so far.

[0rganism]

9. i suspect fueling a movement to unseat Trump is in Russia's interests now

successful or not, if the Russian Trolls can define the resulting divisions and internecine conflicts, they can cripple this country for decades. President Trump is like a harpoon in the side of the USA: we can't live with it, but we have to be careful how we remove it.

[susanna]

18. ...and they know that.

Excellent analysis.

So we in the US should bite the bullet and take care of it ourselves before outsiders define the terms.

If the GOP had one ounce of guts this would not be an issue.

But they don't.

[thomasafine]

20. GOP needs awareness not guts

The problem is the GOP doesn't even know any of this.

Probably about a third of them watch nothing but Fox News and literally believe this is all fake. (Fox has done more harm to this country than Trump, and I hope for the sake of this country we find real links between Fox and Russia so that they will be destroyed.) The rest of them, even if they're somewhat open-minded, have never even heard of Rykov and Klyushen and dozens of other people involved in different ways, unless they sit on an intelligence committee, and even those guys haven't really spent hours poring over this level of detail, so they probably think it's nothing more than bragging Russian bloggers or Seth Abramson's imagination. And they don't want to know so their investigations move too slowly and ask the wrong questions.

[susanna]

22. I was not talking about the GOP base.

Fox has tainted them for a couple of generations and there is no going back now. There will be no awareness there.

I am talking about GOP Senators and Congresspeople who know exactly what is going on. But because they have gained so much over the last 30 years demonizing anything liberal or progressive via Fox, those legislators have boxed themselves into a corner. Which is why I say they need to find their guts to save our Republic.

I was not clear on what I was saying with my earlier post; I apologize. I hope I am clear now.

Peace.

[thomasafine]

23. I wasn't either

I was probably being more cynical than necessary, but I think that many GOP Congress members are drinking the kool-aid. I do not believe that many of them are as fully informed as their duties would require. I think the reach of Fox News' poison has reached into Congress to a significant degree, and that many there are "true believers" in the bull that mainstream media can't be trusted.

I do agree however that many of them must actually know what is going on, and are simply holding on to the power they have while they have it. In this respect I agree with you that these people need to find their guts.

[susanna]

24. I understand the cynicism.

I'm there too, which is not a default position for me, so it is difficult to convey my meaning sometimes.

I agree that the Tea Party wave of GOPers have drunk the kool-aid, certainly. I think it is more the elder congresspersons who should remember what actual governance looks like (hearings, amendments, bipartisan cooperation).

I think we are ultimately talking about much the same thing. I appreciate your thoughtful comments and opportunity to discuss them.

[thomasafine]

10. Because they don't care, or because they didn't really admit to anything

I think at a certain level they don't care. On the one hand, they wanted changes in sanctions, but on the other hand, what they wanted even more I think is to harm our status. If we are weaker, they are stronger.

Also, if you closely read his so-called confession, you'll see that all he really confessed to was running a campaign to boost Trump's popularity in Russia, which is not illegal even here. So another, perhaps even more likely answer, is that this is simply cover. Because his involvement in a pro-Trump campaign in Russia was completely public and not deniable. This sets his story straight so that he has a baseline of deniability.

His right-hand man Mikhail Kovalev published his own "confession" the day before the election here:
https://www.facebook.com/kovalev2020/posts/1221546747931019
And a followup a few days later here:
https://www.facebook.com/kovalev2020/posts/1225398807545813

Similar to Rykov's postings, there's nothing explicitly incriminating, and he really only confesses to being involved in promoting Trump locally, and in "forecasting" the election. Still he seems to come dangerously close to taking credit for Trump's win, but this will require a good quality translation to know for sure. He does talk about "maximum damage" to the united states elites also, and it seems to be in the context of saying he doesn't care if Trump wins or not (or perhaps that it is inevitable that Trump will lose in the long run, more translation issues).

Rykov posted something on facebook that seems a little more incriminating here:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10211417962235051&set=pb.1542170876.-2207520000.1511766210.&type=3&theater
in which he seems to say that Russia should hide the sanction discussions it has had with Trump. One could say this is just the idle speculation of a political commentator, but it still seems odd. If Rykov was involved in sanction talks (which I have no real reason to suspect) then he really is central to every aspect of this scandal which already allegedly includes:
1. He admits to running a pro-Trump Russian campaign.
2. He's had known strong links (possibly even boss or founder) to the Internet Research Agency, which we know attempted to hack our election.
3. Even stronger links to Le Pen, with similar fake news troll attacks.
4. Seth Abramson's claim that it was his prostitutes used to compromise Trump (which in my opinion is a bit thin, but possible)
5. Possible involvement in the filming of the compromat (because of his porn ties... also a bit of a thin connection).
6. Involvement in sanction talks?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

11. Wow. That's the first time I heard about that second confession from Mikhail Kovalev.

It is interesting that they do appear to corroborate one another.

[thomasafine]

13. We should all be scanning facebook postings

I just found them this week. i tweeted them in response to Seth Abramson's most recent Rykov thread (as user WideSpacer) but I think Seth mutes me.

I really think we should be scanning facebook postings and photos (especially useful) for any people of interest. I found this stuff easily, just by looking. Granted I know just enough Russian to be able to do searches in Russian, but a lot of the stuff I found just by looking for photos and postings around the time of known events.

Rykov has a ton of photos from his inauguration party, and I would swear he had labels on who was in many of them, which have now been removed (however, I've done enough researching stuff to know that misremembering one source for another is exactly the sort of cognitive error that is common). At any rate, looking at those photos might reveal guests at his party that are suspicious. There's so many names and faces flying around it's impossible for any one of us to keep track of all of them.

[Cryptoad]

14. Welcome to DU,,,,,Comrade!

[thomasafine]

16. Random thought - the Russians probably taped everything

I just had this thought, that if we assume the Russian's primary goal was destabilization or manipulation, then the smart thing for them to do would be to record every single conversation they had with anybody and everybody linked to this mess, so that they would hold kompromat on a large number of people, and so they could, at any time, just step away and reveal it all and watch us burn.

[gopiscrap]

21. welcome to DU

[ansible]

6. Russian wiki on him

Konstantin Igorevich Rykov (born May 27, 1979, Moscow) is a Russian Internet and media producer, founder of a number of online media and publisher, known as the creator of a network of erotic sites

PEE PEE TAPES

[Tommy_Carcetti]

8. There's definitely been speculation he might be a player behind it. nt

[Kablooie]

12. You posted a version of this story quite awhile ago but still it hasn't hit the mainstream press.

If true it helps to explain some of Russia's involvement.

I'm sure news organizations have been investigating this but since there haven't been any reports I suppose they haven't been able to track down corroboration from other sources.

Also since it hasn't reached the standards of mainstream press it could be an empty boast or perhaps he knew a little bit about what was going on and decided to take full credit for it himself.

We should remain skeptical of unverified information even if it fits our conception of events, particularly in this environment where many are actively trying to spread 'fake news' to obfuscate real news that is damaging to the right.

I hope Mueller's investigation clears this up.

[orangecrush]

15. K&R

Expose and indict.

[AntiFascist]

17. No doubt he imagined Marine Le Pen would be the French representative for this world order...

too bad their fake news didn't gain traction there.

[Achilleaze]

19. republicans are just fine with this War on America

and won't lift a damn finger to defend the USA. Deplorable.