A U.S. Veteran Turned Putin Supporter: Is He For Real or Just Another Russian Troll?
(A meme I found on Twitter/X.)
If you’re relatively new to the issues related to Kremlin propaganda and how it’s affecting other countries (including the United States), I recommend reading some background posts I wrote that explains things in more detail along with links to other sites where you can read more to educate yourself.
Yesterday I wrote about Jasmine, a woman who claimed to be an American who is so disaffected with the Democrat Party that she intends to vote for Donald Trump. A bunch of Internet sleuths figured out that she is really a Russian propagandist and they found evidence to prove their point. I came across this post by Thom Hartmann where he mentions that Russian social media trolls are indeed imitating Americans online in an effort to ensure Donald Trump's reelection as president.
As I was looking around Twitter/X I found a random post that came into my For You page and I'm starting to suspect that U.S. veterans are being used as part of the Russian trolling campaign either through recruiting these veterans directly or the Russian trolls are merely pretending to be U.S. veterans. One such example is this Twitter/X user named Steve who uses the handle SteveLovesAmmo. His account bio has a banner picture of the American flag and it lists him as a former U.S. Army NCO who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and he is also a Purple Heart recipient. Next month will be the one-year anniversary of the day that he joined Twitter/X.
Seeing his profile, you would expect a middle-of-the-road guy whose politics would be somewhere between moderate and center-right. But then I saw his tweet yesterday where he mentioned that Vladimir Putin didn't tell Americans to wear masks and get vaccinated nor did he tell half of the American population that they were extremists. He also claimed that Putin didn't invade Middle Eastern countries while ending his post saying that Joe Biden and the so-called Unity Party are worse than Putin.
As for Putin not invading or getting involved in Middle Eastern countries over the past 20+ years, Syria would like to have a word with Steve about that.
That post isn't an anomaly. Going through his account, one can find numerous other questionable posts. He claims that over 10 million immigrants have been let into the U.S. by the same people who, he says, forced Americans to get vaccinated.
Then there is this post, where he types in all-caps “DONALD TRUMP IS THE ONLY SOLUTION” seven times.
Just two days earlier he typed “Democrats cannot win without cheating” five times before adding this sixth sentence: “And Republicans are allowing it to happen.”
He tweeted his personal congratulations to those who resisted getting vaccinated because they have “survived the largest psychological operation in human history.”
He also openly questioned why do we even pay taxes anymore saying that our tax money is used to fund endless wars, spying on Americans, taking down historical statues, fund political persecution, and fund illegal immigration.
There are plenty more tweets just like that. But it is so obvious that he is a major Vladimir Putin fan. Before Tucker Carlson posted his recent interview with Vladimir Putin, Steve was eagerly awaiting that video while saying that he was ready for the meltdown and he has put up his “Russian asset” decorations.
After the Carlson-Putin interview was released online he made this tweet praising Putin while saying that Joe Biden could never give an interview like that. He said that Putin sounded coherent.
After reading Steve's tweets, I have to conclude that he could be part of one of two scenarios: 1) He is a real veteran who became such a fanatic follower of Donald Trump that he has started to show admiration for Vladimir Putin or 2) Steve is really a Russian who works at a troll farm in either Moscow or St. Petersburg and he/she is only pretending to be an American vet.
Regardless of which scenario it is, as someone who has relatives who are either veterans or currently serving in the military, I find it outrageous that veterans are being used to further the authoritarian ambitions of both Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. This Kremlin propaganda trick puts a huge blot over the majority of veterans who are real patriots who served in order to preserve democracy and the constitution. As this sarcastic tweet I found puts it: “Wow recently Twitter became a great place for meeting US Army veterans who love Putin, I bet they are all totally real people.”
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