From inside a Russian prison cell, Vladimir Kara-Murza has used his role as a Washington Post columnist to provide powerful analysis of Vladimir Putin's Russia.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/15/kara-murza-anti-war-russian-arrests-protests/

I don't know if there's a link without a paywall.

We know online influence campaigns are run against democracies by China, Russia, and Iran, but what we don't know is how effective are they. Their efficacy is very much the question in 2024.

I found this interesting passage in an article from the Texas National Security Review which addresses the issue.

....at the height of the Cold War, the United States knew all too well how destructive nuclear weapons could be. What was less clear were Soviet capabilities and intentions. The perceived threat of online manipulation now inverts this dynamic: Ill intent from adversarial states is evident, and the tradecraft of online propagandists is well documented. What remains unclear is the degree to which “information warfare” is a causal factor to real-world events.

Surely, the recent example of the spell Kremlin narratives have held over a part of the Republican Party is a good example. But the perception about the power of information war itself has evolved.

The article goes on:

...This lack of clarity notwithstanding, the propaganda elements of Russian interference in 2016 sparked a paradigm shift in how U.S. policymakers conceptualized information as both a threat and a warfighting function.

2016 was, I'm sure, the moment the 21st Century began in earnest. Has there been any single campaign as consequential as what happened in that year?

PORTLAND, Ore. (KPTV) - After a group claimed responsibility on Monday for setting fire to at least 15 police cars at the PPB’s training facility, Portland officials along with the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office spoke Wednesday about last week’s protest-related vandalism in the city.

The group is called “Rachel Corrie’s Ghost Brigade” and they claim that they set fire to the police cars because they knew officers were going to sweep the Portland State University library to clear out protesters who were occupying the building.

https://www.kptv.com/2024/05/08/group-claims-responsibility-arson-portland-police-training-center/

@GaliaAckerman’s latest editorial for @DeskRussie_en on what’s wrong with FBK’s new series “Traitors”: “Putin’s regime glorifies the murderers and rapists of Ukrainian women & children, but the Russians squabble over the role played by Berezovsky and Chubais” https://desk-russie.info/2024/05/10/the-quarrels-of-the-russian-opposition.html