"British scientists from Cambridge Analytica suggested making 5,000 existing human psychotypes"

[Tommy_Carcetti]

Last edited Mon Mar 19, 2018, 12:09 PM - Edit history (2)

The most pertinent part of Kremlin-linked internet propagandist Konstantin Rykov's boastful confession.

This was posted on Facebook on November 15, 2016, just one week after the election.

Translated:

What was our idea with Donald Trump?

For four years and two days .. it was necessary to get to everyone in the brain and grab all possible means of mass perception of reality. Ensure the victory of Donald in the election of the US President. Then create a political alliance between the United States, France, Russia (and a number of other states) and establish a new world order.

Four years and two days is, on the one hand, a very long time, and on the other very small. Our idea was insane, but realizable.

In order to understand everything for the beginning, it was necessary to "digitize" all possible types of modern man.

Donald decided to invite for this task - the special scientific department of the "Cambridge University."

British scientists from Cambridge Analytica suggested making 5,000 existing human psychotypes - the "ideal image" of a possible Trump supporter. Then .. put this image back on all psychotypes and thus pick up a universal key to anyone and everyone.

Development as a result cost Donald Fredovich $ 5 million. But! He got his hands on - a secret super weapon.

Who engaged in targeted advertising .. will understand what it means.

Remember how much money Clinton funds and "their supporters" spent on campaigning around the world? 5 times more than Trump.

But who invested in network promotion is 5 times more than Hillary and became president? Also Donald Trump.

Then it was only necessary to upload this data to information flows and social networks. And we began to look for those who would have coped with this task better than others.

The full confession:

https://www.facebook.com/konstantin.rykov/posts/10210621124674610

https://www.facebook.com/konstantin.rykov/posts/10210643558675446

[Cracklin Charlie]

1. Were gettin there!

These people suck.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. Rykov also claimed that the purpose of Carter Page's visit was to meet with Russian intelligence

This was posted in July 2016, while Carter Page was in Moscow:






The original Facebook link in Russian:

https://www.facebook.com/konstantin.rykov/posts/10209422386386902

[OnDoutside]

29. Is this what Michael McFaul means by Starik /

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Khottabych

Starik Khottabych (Russian: Старик Хоттабыч, Old Man Khottabych or Old Khottabych) is a Sovcolor Soviet fantasy film produced in the USSR by Goskino at Kinostudyia Lenfilm (Lenfilm Studio) in 1956, based on a children's book of the same name by Lazar Lagin who also wrote the film's script, and directed by Gennadi Kazansky. In the United States, the film was released theatrically by Sovexportfilm, with English subtitles, under the title The Flying Carpet through Artkino Pictures Inc. in 1960.

Volka,[1] a 12-year-old Soviet Young Pioneer, discovers an ancient vessel at the bottom of a river. When he opens it, a genie emerges. He calls himself Hassan Abdul-rahman ibn Khattab, but Volka renames him Khottabych. The name Khottabych is derived from the Arabic Khattab with the Russian patronymic suffix -ych, yielding a Russian equivalent of ibn-Khattab (son of Khattab). Khottabych later claims to be 3,732 years and 5 months old. The grateful Khottabych is ready to fulfill any of Volka's wishes, but it becomes clear that Volka should use the powers of the genie carefully, for they can have some unforeseen undesirable results.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

31. Not sure. He'd know better than I would.

Could be a literary reference, or could just be a nickname he gave himself in response to Rykov calling him "Old Michael McFaul."

I'm of the firm belief that McFaul is a good guy--nothing about him or anything he's said leads me to believe he's been compromised by the Russians. Obviously he's not shy to engage the Russian trolls who harass him, but that's not to suggest he's aiding them in any way.

I do think he knows a lot more than what he's at liberty to discuss, and possibly the fact that the Russian trolls were so inclined to pester him might have been a useful conduit for US intel.

[OnDoutside]

33. Completely agree. I believe, from what I've seen of him over the last 18 or so months, is that he

is an outstanding American patriot, and is super clued in, in a way that we could never be.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

39. This anecdote from a Politico article might further explain things:

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/clinton-putin-226153

But Clinton knew how to play tough with the Russian officials, some of whom referred to her with both derision and respect as “a lady with balls.” When McFaul arrived in Moscow in January 2012, he faced harassment, including the reporter with a Kremlin-controlled TV channel who followed him everywhere and the Russian secret services that followed his children to school.

One day, Clinton called an exasperated McFaul at the ambassador’s residence in Moscow to express her anger at the Russian violation of diplomatic protocol. McFaul was stunned that Clinton had called on an unsecure line, especially when the two had plans to meet soon anyway. “Oh, I want them to know that I know,” Clinton said, in McFaul’s recollection.

Rykov's candor about his actions, and his obsession about tagging McFaul in all his salacious tidbits, might be considered a sly tit-for-tat for what he sees as past transgressions from people like Hillary and McFaul.

In other words, he wants us to know that he knows.

[OnDoutside]

40. Nice one Tommy, thanks.

[backtoblue]

3. Holy hell this is huge

Mass manipulation, persuasion, and censorship.
At least we're starting to see who the mass propaganda machines are. Psychops

[smirkymonkey]

4. This is going to be an interesting week.

With any luck, Fatfuk will stroke out by the end of it.

[volstork]

5. This is damning.

Facebook needs to be taken down for collusion.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. I don't think FB was colluding. Their morals were blinded by money. . . . . nt

[erronis]

8. But every player in this game of dominance was blinded by money (and power/sex/drugs/...)

FB colluded albeit unwittingly. And by "unwittingly" I mean that they may have "seen" this happening, would have detected it in their network analyses, but didn't care to put the pieces together into some ethical obligation to do something about it.

We have an expression about errors of commission vs. errors of omission. I doubt that the leadership of fb initially thought about undermining US democracy by colluding with outside parties and selling their information. However they were more than aware of this happening several years before admitting it. Let's call that "errors of admission" or "taking responsibility".

The only way that corporations or people will learn lessons are to be rewarded for good decisions and punished for bad ones. fb and other social media/platforms need to learn some lessons.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. No. RepubliCons sold out the country eyes open for power. . . . nt

[erronis]

11. I agree about the repuglicans but think that fb deserves a lot of blame

Most of us don't walk into a life of crime knowingly. We are enticed and then compromised and thus entrapped.

[yonder]

15. It's always the money, it seems.

Greed, pursuit of inordinate wealth, avarice, whatever it's called, just follow it and see where it takes one. I always get a kick out of the thumpers beating their chest about ours being a "Christian" nation, when right in front of their noses the evidence suggests otherwise. Perhaps, greed is the biggest of the so-called seven deadly sins and maybe the reason for the other six.

[OnDoutside]

30. At the very least, they knew something but said nothing ?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

34. Very likely true. . . . . . nt

[OnDoutside]

35. Actually, do you remember last year there was news going round that Zuckerberg was exploring

the possibility that he himself might run in 2020 ? Today's events puts that in a much better light. Why would he expose something that he might use himself, and block Trump out of it ?

[Chimichurri]

6. This psyops is effective because Fox News and the Republican Party

Advance "alternative facts" aiding Russia. Now, why is that?

[pandr32]

10. "Ensure the victory of Donald..."

If they did everything detailed above then to think they did not hack the vote in key states as well would seem silly. Their plot was important to create a new world order--not just elect Dumtard so they are still engaged. We must realize we are not just up against Republicans, but Russia.

[Ligyron]

18. That's the other possibility in this narrative.

That it's more about establishing a white supremacy ruled by a wealthy elite of "royalty" (like Trump and family, Putin, etc.) than just merely causing chaos in the US.

The ascendant religious crap and RW memes both here and in Russia tend to support this type of coup.

We'll find out after the next election whether or not we still have a country.

[pandr32]

37. I agree. We must do all we can to save our country

There will be no second chance if we lose the next election.

[Lonestarblue]

12. What was the reason for Rykov to make such a post?

What did he hope to gain? It seems a direct admission of collusion.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

28. Rykov's mindset is more Al Qaeda than Anonymous.

I initially made the mistake of just thinking of him as I do with most internet trolls and hackers--likes to lurk in the shadows, cause chaos, but distrusts authority and seeks to conceal everything about them.

However, Rykov's operating in Russia, is a former Duma member for Putin's United Russia party, Putin apparently named him a "trusted confidant", and while he could plausibly be indicted by the United States much like the members of the Internet Research Agency, as long as he doesn't set foot in the US or a country where he could be extradited to the US, he'll never see the inside of a US courtroom.

So he's completely 100% safe, and he's doing the bidding of the Kremlin. The Kremlin isn't going to arrest him, nor are they going to poison him or throw him out of a fourth story window. He's their guy. And he's doing exactly what they want (and possibly ordered) him to do.

So once the deed was done (i.e. Trump getting elected), he was basically free to brag without any practical consequence.

Of course, he had also made rather open and incriminating statements during the election--like for example, saying that Carter Page's July 2016 trip to Russia was nothing more than a cover for him to meet with Russian intelligence operatives.

And had someone picked up on that intel--and it's quite possible that someone did (for reasons that I'll explain below)--they could have plausibly taken counter measures that might have changed things if done properly.

But don't forget that the intel assessment was that the hacking and interference by Russia was two-fold. Yes, it did seek to get Donald Trump elected. But if that mission failed, all the disinformation out there would have still eroded confidence in President Hillary Clinton. So merely the fact that they were getting this information out and making these in-roads to the Trump campaign was victory enough. Trump winning was the cherry on top of the ice cream. And in the end, they got the cherry.

Now, what Rykov (and Klyushin and Katasonova and the others) were thinking during all of this. They did this because Russia's stature in the world had been hurt, and they blamed the US and the Obama administration for this. When Ukraine underwent a revolution against their Russian backed president Yanukovych in 2014, they were furious and blamed the US (without any substantial evidence). When the US levied sanctions against Russia for invading Crimea, they were even angrier.

So they wanted to hit the US where it really hurt--in the White House. And they ran this campaign that ultimately saw a corrupt and incompetent compromised Russian asset, Donald Trump, be elected as the US President, thus turning what was considered the premier world democracy into an absolute joke.

This is not the mindset of mere hackers or trolls, but what you would find with terrorists.

And terrorists need to claim responsibility for their acts, or else whatever cause they are attempting to promote gets forgotten.

So Rykov was very brazen and open about what he and his cohorts were doing.

And you'll notice that he would frequently tag former US ambassador Michael McFaul into his posts.

McFaul--who served under President Obama--has been extremely outspoken against the Kremlin, their aggression, abuses of power and anti-democratic actions. He's also extremely social media savvy, for better or for worse. He'll correspond with just about anyone who bothers to talk with him on Twitter. And Rykov and company know this, and have in fact taken advantage of this fact.

McFaul--along with US State Department figures Victoria Nuland and Jen Psaki--was branded public enemy number one amongst the Russian internet troll community during the Ukrainian crisis. They were mocked and impugned endlessly. McFaul fought back to preserve his reputation and position, for whatever it was worth.

But they blamed him in part for Russia's ostracization by the world community.

So as they engaged in this campaign to interfere with the US election, Rykov was sure to tag McFaul and appraise him of what they had accomplished so far. This was in order to tell him--in the words of the great Taylor Swift--"Ohh, look what you made me do."

The million dollar question is: McFaul was made aware of Rykov's efforts literally as they took place. Did McFaul report this to US intelligence, who should have followed up with this knowledge? If so, that's one more independent line of intel besides just the Steele Dossier, which pretty much destroys the argument in the Nunes memo.

Or was McFaul somehow silenced against his will from saying specific to intelligence despite their open bragging? Did they have any kompromat against him?

I honestly think it's more likely the former than the latter, although the latter is within the realm of possibility.

[Lonestarblue]

36. Thanks so much for this thorough explanation.

I’ve not been able to keep up with all the Russian players since the U.S. ones have done enough crazy and possibly treasonous stuff to fill several books. Your explanation really helps!

[Tommy_Carcetti]

38. You're very welcome.

I will say that at times I've almost doubted my own sanity in reading about them, no joke.

I half expect people like Konstantin Rykov to turn out like Tyler Durden or something like that, figments of my imagination invented to kill boredom.

[Hortensis]

13. Always thought Kool-Aid types would need counseling

to return to reality, counseling they wouldn't accept and no one would pay for.

Maybe these companies SHOULD be required to pay for professional assistance/counseling/classes for those who wanted to replace the noxious lies with better understanding of their world. Only some of the 50 million Facebook users reported targeted for disinformation implantation would want help initially, of course, but like giving up nicotine addiction desire could grow. Classes on basic social and political realities could also be offered free and online.

[poboy2]

14. r'd

[ancianita]

16. Why hasn't this Rykov's post been distributed widely before now? Where did you get it from?

[PatSeg]

20. I found this article from Raw Story

from last November. This story has been out there, but evidently got lost in the constant barrage of Trump related news.

Kremlin’s ‘chief troll’ boasted last year of ‘insane’ plan to elect Trump — and laid out evidence Mueller still probing

Kremlin propagandist Konstantin Rykov boasted on Facebook that he helped recruit Trump in 2012 to run for president as part of an effort to reshape the global order, reported the Washington Monthly.

The 38-year-old Rykov, an internet entrepreneur and former Russian politician, claimed Nov. 12, 2016, that he contacted Trump via social media the night President Barack Obama was re-elected.

“[Trump] lifted his plane to the sky and flew between New York and DC, calling the whole world through his twitter — to start a march on Washington!” Rykov posted. “Without a moment’s thought, I wrote him a reply, which sounded like this in Russian: ‘I’m ready. What should I do?’

“Suddenly! There was a thin squeak of warning in the DM,” he added, apparently referring to his direct messages. “It was a message from Donald Trump. More precisely a picture. In the picture he was sitting in the armchair of his jet, smiling cheerfully and showing me the thumb of his right hand.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/kremlins-chief-troll-boasted-last-year-of-insane-plan-to-elect-trump-and-laid-out-evidence-mueller-still-probing/

It rather sounds like he was prone to possible exaggeration, maybe to get attention. Some of the things he's said sound rather far-fetched, but we live in very far-fetched times.

[ancianita]

21. Thank you. But that's from rawstory. I'm asking Tommy why this FB info is just now showing up.

Our knowledge of Russian involvement isn't so recent that this wouldn't have shown up here before now.

The OP content is just too important to have escaped notice before this year.

[PatSeg]

25. When I did a Google search on Rykov,

I found numerous references to the Facebook post from Nov 2016. Raw Story was just one of them. I too am curious and concerned that his Facebook post had gotten so little exposure. Of course, November 12, 2016 was just after the election and could have gotten lost in the news cycle. Even so, it seems to have been mentioned quite a bit a year later and I still cannot recall hearing or reading about it until now.

Here's another article from last November:

https://medium.com/@ScottMStedman/kremlin-propagandist-boasted-of-his-hacking-efforts-strongly-implied-colluding-with-trump-team-in-a905104965a1

[Tommy_Carcetti]

22. Personally, I actually stumbled across Rykov on my own last July, believe it or not.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029322103

I posted it here, and didn't hear much more about Rykov until November, when well-known Twitter pundit Seth Abramson as well as an independent journalist named Scott Stedman started reporting on him.

As someone else alluded to, Raw Story also picked up on Rykov, but there's been little outside those sources so far.

I honestly think intelligence and law enforcement probably have a lot more on Rykov that we don't know about so far, but that could very well change in the future. He's connected with someone named Artem Klyushin, who (along with his then wife) partied with Trump in Moscow in 2013 and then almost immediately began promoting Trump as a presidential candidate over social media.

Like Rykov, Klyushin also bragged over social media he was responsible for getting Trump elected.

Rykov is also closely partnered with an individual named Maria Katasonova, who's meet with Marine La Pen twice in person, and starred in a music video called "Russian Hacker" where the lyrics brag about Russians hacking John Podesta's emails.

Katasonova and Klyushin were both in attendance at Rykov's election night party in Moscow. And there's video:

If you go to 7:07 in the video, you'll see the moment where Trump was projected to win, and one of the party goers shouts in English, "We've fucking done it!" Rykov (blondish reddish hair, with a beard and wearing a black sweatshirt) comes up and embraces the others as they sing the refrain to Queen's "We are the Champions." Klyushin is seen briefly walking past at that moment in the background.

(The American interviewed earlier in the video is Jack Hanick, one of the co-founders of Fox News who moved to Russia to start up his own media ventures)

Why are people like Rykov, Klyushin and Katasonova so open on social media about their deeds?

My theory is that their mindset is less like Anonymous and more like Al Quaeda. They were operating in a safe environment and doing the Kremlin's business so there's no real reprecussions. And they have been furious about Russia being ostrascized by the US and the West and I think like terrorists, they want to openly claim responsibility for what they've done.

That's why you see Rykov constantly tagging Michael McFaul--the social media savvy former US ambassador to Russia--in all of his boasts. McFaul has been a constant critic of Russian policy and Rykov wanted to humiliate him. I just hope that McFaul was reporting everything to US intelligence so they have a record of all this. I seriously think that they do, and we will learn more about it in the coming weeks and months.

[ancianita]

24. Thanks, Tommy. I hope you're right about our power to do anything about these networks.

The way Trump crows about how business is the new government, and the FBI are racketeers, one would think his looking glass world might be the future.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

27. You're welcome!

[annabanana]

17. Boy Howdy!.. Kickaroonie. . . . n/t

[Pepsidog]

19. FB should be ruined, taken down, replaced. They are the new evil empire

[Ferrets are Cool]

23. Reading this gave me chills. nt

[Anon-C]

26. I believe this has been Russia's plan since 2009 when North Korea...

...again became a crisis. I believe Russia intends to normalize relations between the West and North Korea and to realign with the West against Iran ( who though currently an ally is a natural strategic competitor to Russia).

To wit, Russian money and influence have been linking up neo nationalist, Right wing groups across Europe and stoking leftists as well, as in Greece. Russia doing the same with the NRA, white supremacists, Texas nationalists, etc.

[octoberlib]

32. From now on , I will only refer to Trump as Donald Fredovich