Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren write:

On the morning of Nov. 7, 2024, the pro-Russian X account @OCanonist posted a video of men in Ukrainian military uniforms shooting and setting ablaze a mannequin wearing a Trump 2024 T-shirt and red hat. With it, @OCanonist shared the message, “It’s time to defund this degenerate country.”

Over the course of the following day, the post was shared more than 26,000 times and viewed by 12.4 million users. From X, the video exploded across social media, was shared by other high-profile, right-wing influencers such as Gunther Eagleman, and was viewed millions more times in various online communities.

In nearly every post, the message was the same: Stop supporting Ukraine.

The video, however, was not what it seemed. It was not created by Trump-hating Ukrainian soldiers, and it did not spread across the internet by chance. It was, in fact, a well-orchestrated deception, a carefully crafted and artfully packaged piece of Russian disinformation.

Outwardly, the MAGA mannequin video seems sophomoric, a bit like something that bored middle school boys might make in their backyard. This simplicity masks the work of a careful hand. The mannequin video is, in fact, a perfect demonstration of the ways in which Russian influence operations have evolved, but it also highlights how these tactics have stayed the same. The new generation of Russian influence operations is less reliant on fake social media personae. Russia—like many companies—has evolved its use of social media marketing to employ the influencer economy. But unlike corporate sales, Russia has peddled the same product for years: distrust of Ukraine. [Continue reading…]