In early June, 2014, a shadowy outfit in St. Petersburg—controlled by the notorious pro-Putin oligarch and warlord, Yezgeny Prigozhin—dispatched a pair of operatives to the United States on a secret mission. Posing as American citizens, the operatives traveled through nine states—scouting sites for political rallies, taking photos, and talking by burner phones. When they returned, they filed an intelligence report–the blueprint for an extraordinary “active measures” campaign to bamboozle the American public that would come to full fruition two years later during the 2016 presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Amid mounting signs that the Russians this year have returned and updated their active measures playbook—while the Iranians and Chinese pursue their own versions— it is instructive to revisit just how extensive and creepy the initial Prigozhin disinformation campaign was.