I was forced to take a combat (“spetz”) propaganda course at Leningrad State University in late 80s’ as a part of my degree in English and American literature (never worked as a propagandist or for the Russian government,) and they taught us this — and much more. I see this pattern and the tactics we were taught being used on the US on a daily basis and have been writing articles about it for the last three years. In 2017, I started to teach free seminars as I think that it is critical to raise the awareness and educate American public on the matters of this cyber campaign. This is a great article, thank you. You can read more about what the Russians teach their propagandists and how it works here: https://medium.com/@ZarinaZabrisky/russian-cyberwar-and-propaganda-f80e9ebe3280