Putin’s new weapon in the Ukraine propaganda war: Internet trolls

The internet troll army’s selling of the Kremlin’s parallel universe to the Russian people and to a  skeptical Western audience is a matter of life and death for the Putin regime.  If the Russian people do not buy their story, Putin loses the high “ratings” on which his regime rests.

If he cannot convince his Western audience, Europe and the United States will take actions that spoil his Novorossiya ventures and threaten his regime.  Trolling is a high stakes business that Putin takes seriously and the West must not underestimate.