"Earlier this month, Finnish software and methodologies company Check First released a report exposing 'a large-scale, cross-country, multi-platform disinformation campaign designed to spread pro-Russian propaganda in the West, with clear indicators of foreign interference and information manipulation.'"
"The primary goal of 'Operation Overload' is to overwhelm newsrooms and fact-checkers and spread 'the Kremlin’s political agenda.'
Foreign affairs journalist Anne Applebaum told Bill Kristol of The Bulwark that China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea do not share an ideology, but ;they do share a common interest, and the common interest is undermining…America, Europe, the liberal world, the democratic world.'”
"They do this, she said, because the oppositions in their own countries are inspired by and use the democratic language of freedom and liberty and rights and rule of law, and leaders need to undermine that language to hold onto power. They also recognize that chaos and uncertainty give them business opportunities in the West. Disrupting democracies by feeding radicalism makes the democratic world lose its sense of community and solidarity."