The Rest Is Classified 130. How Russia Made Trump: Putin Hacks The 2016 Election (Ep 1)
128 snips
Feb 23, 2026 A deep dive into claims that Russia interfered in the 2016 US election and whether Trump’s rise benefited Putin. Cold War active measures and KGB tactics are linked to modern social media disinformation. The conversation explores cyber operations, forged documents, leaks, and how Ukraine and past covert campaigns became testing grounds for information warfare.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
KGB's Historical Information Operations
- The KGB covertly funded books pushing the CIA-JFK assassination theory in the 1960s to influence US public opinion.
- They even planted small bombs and blamed other groups to inflame racial tensions in New York.
Mixing Truth And Forgeries
- Effective active measures often blend accurate details with forged material to appear credible.
- Leaking stolen documents has long been a standard technique in such disinformation campaigns.
Operation Denver's Slow Spread
- Operation Denver spread the false claim that US military research created AIDS by seeding a small Indian journal.
- Over four years the planted story propagated through outlets and reached 40 countries.
