Putin was in the KGB from 1975 to 1990, served as a foreign intelligence officer and reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Below is an interview from 1984 with Yuri Bezmenov, a defector from the KGB. A lot of it is just him talking about his life in the USSR and how he defected, but there's a couple of sections that explain the KGB's methods of 'Ideological Subversion'.

https://youtu.be/yErKTVdETpw?feature=shared&t=3456

This was my instruction: try to get into large circulation, established conservative media. Reach filthy rich movie makers, intellectuals, so-called academic circles, cynical egocentric people who can look into your eyes with an angelic expression and tell you a lie. These are the most recruitable people, people who lack moral principles, who are either too greedy or suffer from self-importance - they feel that they matter a lot, these are the people the KGB wanted very much to recruit.

Does that remind you of anyone... I'm not suggesting that Trump and supporting right-wing media pundits have been knowingly recruited by the Kremlin, it seems more likely that they are just useful idiots who have been easily manipulated... e.g. this lot: https://www.vox.com/politics/370323/tenet-media-russia-what-happened-tim-pool-dave-rubin-benny-johnson-lauren-southern

For the second section, I won't quote because it is too long (~10m) but I would urge you to watch it. Bezmenov in detail explains how the perception of reality of a nations' citizens is corrupted, eroding the voting population's ability understand the difference between truth and lies. Then the country loses the ability to make sensible choices in their own self interest.

https://youtu.be/yErKTVdETpw?feature=shared&t=4099

Obviously Russia/Putin are no longer Communist/Marxist, but there is no reason to think that the long term strategies being discussed are particularly dependent on one set of political and social goals.

1) Has been in direct contact with Putin since 2022, they 'have spoken repeatedly about personal matters, business and geopolitics' : https://apnews.com/article/musk-putin-x-trump-tesla-election-russia-9cecb7cb0f23ccce49336771280ae179

2) Was helped with funding for his purchase of Twitter by Russian oligarchs (Petr Aven and Vadim Moshkovich) who have close ties to Putin: https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/putins-henchmen-helped-musk-to-acquire-twitter-reports-381664/

https://www.opensanctions.org/entities/Q18346629/

https://www.icij.org/investigations/cyprus-confidential/russian-oligarch-sanctions-petr-aven-luxury/

3) Blocked the use of Starlink by Ukrainian forces trying to destroy part of the Russian fleet in port at Sevastopol: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66752264

3.1) ... an action that was praised by Putin directly: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/13/russias-putin-praises-elon-musk-days-after-ukraine-starlink-controversy

4) Has questioned the need for NATO to exist: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1764018190277836903

5) Was included in the recent call between Trump and Zelenskiy: https://www.reuters.com/world/musk-joined-trumps-call-with-ukraines-zelenskiy-media-reports-say-2024-11-08/

https://www.rferl.org/a/putin-russia-president-1999-chechnya-apartment-bombings/30097551.html

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Important report from USA State Department on the "Syncretic Disinformation Network" which includes "Dugin inspired" groups New Resistance (Nova Resistência), Fort Russ News & Center for Syncretic Studies who all publish Russian propaganda. The report says Brazilian New Resistance group has pushed Propaganda on Ukraine from its Moscow registered website from leader Raphael Machado & members like Lucas Leiroz who writes for sites including GRU linked InfoBrics https://www.state.gov/gec-special-report-exporting-pro-kremlin-disinformation-the-case-of-nova-resistencia-in-brazil/