The Salty Live

Thank you to everyone who joined Olga Lautman and me for our Active Measures Live series this afternoon.

If you missed the latest chapter in our Active Measures series, you can read it below. Watch for a new chapter in your inbox next Monday and join us for a Live to break it down next Tuesday at 12:30 PM ET.

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Thank you to everyone who joined my Live with Katie Brennan and Michelle Kinney this morning. Katie, who is currently running for General Assembly in NJ, has an interest plan for how states can fight back against media corporations that would prevent free speech.

Check it out above and let me know what you think in the comments.

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Thank you Iammymom, Nicole L, Kevin Paquette, Evelyn Harrison, Lori Paquette, and many others for tuning into my live video with Olga Lautman! Join me for my next live video in the app.

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Friends, I don’t mean to intrude on your Saturday but I wanted you to watch this replay of my Live with my good friend Denver Riggleman, because it’s important.

Here’s what you need to know about Denver: he is a former Republican member of Congress from Virginia who left the party (or maybe the party left him). He is a former military intelligence officer and served as an advisor to the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He and his wife run a great Bourbon distillery. He spends lots of time helping Ukraine defend itself against its genocidal Russian neighbor.

He is also a cybersecurity expert who thinks deeply about how data is manipulated, which is what I wanted to talk to him about. What is happening to our personal information, courtesy of the Trump Administration but also because of advances in AI, is terrifying. With everything else happening these days, we can’t lose sight of the fact that DOGE downloaded reams of our data for a reason.

In the coming weeks, Denver and I are going to host a Live dedicated to ways we can all do a better job protecting our personal information. I hope you’ll check out the video above and join us for that chat next month, once it’s scheduled.

Stay Salty!

Julie

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Thank you to everyone for joining Olga Lautman and me earlier today for another great episode of Pax Americana. It was wonderful to have Ken Harbaugh of The Ken Harbaugh Show on the show today. Ken has spent lots of time on the front lines in Ukraine and has a deeply informed perspective that you need to hear.

We also addressed the parallels between our accelerated slide towards autocracy here in the United States and how Russia’s nascent democracy collapsed almost as soon as Vladimir Putin took power. The shocking part of this story, of course, is that unlike post-Soviet Russia, the United States has long been a democracy. No more.

This week, it became clear that if things don’t change drastically, we will live in an unrecognizable country by the time the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary next July 4.

Thanks for watching,

Julie

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Hi everyone! Intruding on your Saturday to post our great TACO Tuesday conversation from last week. If you need a break from the relentless news cycle, check out my conversation with Frederic Poag and Michelle Kinney.

Stay Salty!

Julie

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit saltypolitics.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you to everyone who tuned into the latest episode of Pax Americana today. The Pax Americana community just keeps growing and Olga Lautman and I are floored by how many of you tune in every Thursday.

If you missed today’s episode, please catch it here.

Olga Lautman and I are still taking sign ups for our Fall 2025 seminar: a 6-week discussion on information warfare, disinformation, and media manipulation— exclusively for our paid subscribers.

Starts: Wednesday, September 17 at 3:00 PM ETMeets: Weekly on Wednesdays (Sept 17–Oct 22)Format: Zoom

Zoom link will be sent separately on Wednesday at 2:30 PM ET. Cut-off for registration is September 17 at 2:00 PM ET.

Slides will be emailed the following day…

Registration Link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSccVY1gdQvAJLIsN8ahz0oRRl1bsyqDupu1Ixx5SEcWZLZ6kg/viewform?usp=header

If you have not yet signed up but want to join, please consider becoming a paid subscriber now.

Show Notes

* Russian drones deep inside Poland

NATO warplanes, including Dutch F-35s and Polish F-16s, shot down multiple Russian drones deep inside Poland—the first direct alliance engagement against Russian weapons over member territory. Russia’s attack forced airport closures and damaged homes. It prompted Prime Minister Donald Tusk to invoke NATO Article 4, calling it “the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II.” Source: Wall Street Journal

* Poland and Latvia Restrict Airspace Near Russian and Belarusian Borders After Drone Incursion

Poland and Latvia barred drones and low-flying aircraft along their borders with Russia and Belarus after NATO jets shot down Russian drones inside Polish territory. The restrictions, which don’t affect commercial flights, are meant to give NATO and local defenses room to intercept further incursions. Source: The Moscow Times

* Poland closes all border crossings with Belarus: about 1,700 cars in queues

The State Border Committee of Belarus reported that it had received an official notification from the Polish Border Service about the closure of all remaining active checkpoints on the Belarusian-Polish border.

Source: The Insider (Russian language)

* Belarus frees 52 prisoners after Trump appeal, US eases some sanctions on Minsk

Belarus released 52 prisoners, including journalist Ihar Losik and 14 foreign nationals, after a personal appeal from Donald Trump. In return, Washington eased sanctions on Belarus’ national airline Belavia, even as opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya warned the gesture covered only a fraction of political prisoners and signaled no real change in Lukashenko’s rule.

Source: Reuters

* Belarusian spy network uncovered by Eurojust operation, Moldovan ex-intel chief arrested

A Eurojust-backed operation involving Czechia, Romania, Hungary, and Moldova exposed a Belarusian KGB spy ring spanning multiple countries. Among those arrested was Alexandru Bălan, Moldova’s former deputy intelligence chief, accused of passing state secrets and meeting Belarusian officers in Budapest. Source: Euroactiv

* Russian spy drones over Germany

Russian surveillance drones are conducting reconnaissance flights over eastern Germany to track arms shipments to Ukraine, with over 530 drone sightings recorded in the first three months of this year alone, according to Western intelligence services. Source: Euronews

* Russia plans to produce nearly 2,500 high-precision missiles in 2025

Russia is expected to manufacture close to 2,500 high-precision missiles in 2025, spanning cruise, ballistic, and hypersonic classes, Vadym Skibitsky, the deputy head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency, said in an interview with Ukrinform. Source: Kyiv Independent

* 123,000 flights disrupted by Russian signals – threatening flight safety

In four months, nearly 123,000 flights have been disrupted by Russian signals that interfere with GPS and other satellite systems. This is according to a report from Sweden and five neighboring countries that SVT has reviewed. Source: TVP World and SVT (In Swedish)

* Julie and my latest chapter from our new series

Active Measures: The Kremlin's Troll Factory

Stay Salty. And particularly this week, stay safe.

Julie

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit saltypolitics.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you to everyone who joined Olga Lautman and me yesterday for our weekly chat about Russia’s election interference in the 2016 election. Hours after the show, which you can stream above, Russian drones invaded Polish airspace in what is a massive provocation of NATO.

Poland and other NATO allies scrambled to shoot down the Russian drones but make no mistake — this is the first time that Russian drones have been shot down over the territory of a NATO member nation.

The timing is not a coincidence. Yesterday, Polish President Karol Nawrocki held a joint press conference in Helsinki with Finish President Alexander Stubb. "We do not trust Vladimir Putin's good intentions," Nawrocki said. He added, "We believe that Vladimir Putin is ready to also invade other countries.”

The buildup to this moment has been happening for some time.

Last week, Putin attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Tianjin and a military parade in Beijing. where he held bilateral meetings with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, whose country is a member of NATO. In Beijing, Kim joined Xi and Putin in a symbolic walk of solidarity during a military parade. Also there were Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the leaders of several former Central Asian and Caucasian Soviet republics, as well as Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, another Putin ally.

While this was happening, the United States was abdicating its decades-long commitment to European security. The Trump administration signaled last week that it is ending several longstanding U.S. security assistance programs in Europe — most notably the Baltic Security Initiative, which has supported Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in countering Russian aggression. In short, Trump is phasing out security assistance for countries bordering Russia, including those Baltic states.

This should come as no surprise. Almost as soon as Trump was back in the White House, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told European leaders that the United States was no longer “primarily focused” on European security and that Ukraine was largely Europe’s problem. At the Munich Security Conference earlier this year, Vice President JD Vance claimed that the biggest danger to Europe was not Russia or China, but rather “the threat from within”— including issues like migration, policies to fight disinformation, multiculturalism, what he termed “globalism,” gay rights and other matters anathema to the Trump Administration.

So it stands to reason that just as the Trump Administration was making good on its promise to cut Europe off, Putin chose this week to test NATO’s resolve.

Poland has now invoked Article 4 of the NATO treaty, which allows it to bring an issue before the North Atlantic Council. In nearly eighty years, Article 4 has only been invoked seven times, most recently when Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine over three years ago.

Polish Prime Minsiter Donald Tusk declared that Poland was “at its closest point to open conflict since World War II.” When Poles speak this way, pay attention. It was Hitler’s secret pact with Joseph Stalin to carve up Poland that led to Germany’s invasion of western Poland on September 1, 1939. On September 3, Great Britain and France declared war on the Third Reich, leading to the start of World War II. In accordance with the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east on September 17, claiming to protect Ukrainians and Belarusians.

Some things do not change. The only outstanding question — the outstanding question — is what Trump intends to do. This should raise serious concerns about what exactly he and Putin discussed in their secret, ten minute one-on-one chat at their Alaska summit last month. What guarantees did Trump give Putin? What, in return, did Putin promise Trump?

On Friday, Russia and Belarus will hold a major military drill called “Zapad,” the Russian word for “West.” And what lies west of Russia? All of Europe, on edge as he pokes and prods its defensive ever more. Don’t doubt for a moment that this “drill” is an excuse for Russia to move more of its military hardware to its western flank.

This is a deeply concerning moment.

Reminder

Olga and I are starting our Fall 2025 seminar: a 6-week discussion on information warfare, disinformation, and media manipulation— exclusively for paid subscribers.

If you’ve followed our work on Russia, Ukraine, authoritarian influence, disinformation, and the shifting U.S. media landscape, this seminar is the next step. We’ll look at how the Kremlin’s Cold War playbook evolved into one of the most important tools of modern hybrid warfare — and how those same strategies have been used here in the United States over the past decade to manipulate media, co-opt influencers, deepen polarization, and increasingly fuel real-world violence, including through MAGA-aligned and far-right disinformation networks in the U.S.

Starts: Wednesday, September 17 at 3:00 PM ETMeets: Weekly on Wednesdays (Sept 17–Oct 22)Format: Zoom meet

A Zoom link will be sent separately on Wednesday, September 17 at 2:30 PM ET. Cut-off for registration is September 17 at 2:00 PM ET.

Slides will be emailed the following day.

Registration Link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSccVY1gdQvAJLIsN8ahz0oRRl1bsyqDupu1Ixx5SEcWZLZ6kg/viewform?usp=header

We’ll meet live on Zoom every Wednesday at 3:00 PM ET, and every session will include:

* A focused breakdown of disinformation and information warfare

* Global and U.S. examples — including Kremlin influence, MAGA media ecosystems, and GOP-aligned narrative laundering

* Resistance tools, resources, and discussion

If you are not yet a paid subscriber and would like to join, please sign up here. If you can’t make it live, we will be sending out slides of our talks the morning after the seminar to everyone who signs up.

The Substack Live above is based on this week’s chapter of Active Measures. If you missed it, here it is again, as well as some additional extras that did not make it into Monday’s newsletter.

Kremlin’s Troll Factory Extras

The Operations

Internet Research Agency (IRA) — The original St. Petersburg troll farm. Founded in 2013, disguised as a marketing firm, it was a Russian intelligence operation financed through Prigozhin’s Concord business. At its height, hundreds of staff churned out memes, fake personas, disinformation, and hoaxes that reached 126 million Americans on Facebook during the 2016 election.

Social Design Agency (SDA) — The IRA’s heir. Directed by Ilya Gambashidze under Sergei Kiriyenko, SDA absorbed ex-IRA staff after 2018 and ramped up the operations with AI tools, deepfakes, and fake local news sites. A disinfo center, testing new methods across Europe and the U.S.

Storm-1516 — One of the networks seeding fake U.S. news sites during the 2024 election.

Key Characters

Yevgeny Prigozhin — “Putin’s Chef,” the face of both Wagner and IRA.

Vladislav Surkov — Kremlin puppet-master behind early web brigades.

Vyacheslav Volodin — Helped impose controls on Russia’s internet.

Mira Terada — Runs the fake human rights “Russian FBI” (FBR) operation.

Sergei Kiriyenko — Kremlin deputy chief of staff; he currently oversees SDA, the next-gen troll factory.

Ilya Gambashidze — Now steering the Social Design Agency, IRA’s heir.

John Dougan — Former Florida cop and U.S. defector living in Moscow. His DC Weekly and other cloned “local news” sites became vehicles for Russian disinformation, fusing Kremlin narratives into the U.S. media stream.

Timeline Snapshots

2013: Internet Research Agency (IRA) founded.

2014: Crimea annexation; trolls flood comment sections.

2014 July: MH17 disinfo blitz (40,000 tweets/day).

2015: Hoax “Columbian Chemicals” plant explosion.

2016: Blacktivist & Heart of Texas pages hit hundreds of thousands.

2018: Mueller indictments.

2024: AI-driven disinfo campaigns with Storm-1516 during the 2024 election.

The Troll Factory

Quotas: 100 comments/posts per troll per shift.

Shifts: 12 hours, two days on / two days off.

Training: Watch House of Cards, learn slang, memorize NFL trivia.

Formats: Memes, hoax news, fake protests, sock-puppets.

Budget: $1.25M/month by 2014.

Russia’s Notable Operations

Columbian Chemicals, 2014: Fake explosion at a Louisiana chemical plant. Dozens of fake accounts + doctored video.

Ebola Panic, 2014: Fake reports of outbreaks across the U.S. to stoke fear.

MH17, 2014: 40,000 tweets in 24 hours pushing four contradictory lies.

Fake Police Shootings: Exaggerated or invented claims designed to inflame race relations.

Top Fake Persona Accounts

@TEN_GOP — Posed as the Tennessee Republican Party, racked up 100,000 followers (including real politicians).

Jenna Abrams — Fake “All-American girl” blogger, quoted by major U.S. outlets and even politicians.

SouthLoneStar — Masqueraded as a patriotic Texan, pumped out anti-immigrant and pro-Trump memes.

Blacktivist — Pretended to be part of Black Lives Matter, drew 350,000+ followers, bigger than real BLM pages.

Heart of Texas — Called for secession, pushed anti-Muslim hate, gained 250,000+ followers.

Being Patriotic / Secured Borders — Targeted conservatives with pro-Trump, anti-immigrant propaganda.

United Muslims of America / LGBT United / Black Matters US — Progressive masks designed to splinter left-leaning coalitions and suppress turnout.

Top Disinfo Topics of 2016

Clinton’s Emails — Trolls amplified WikiLeaks dumps and pushed conspiracy theories about “deleted” emails.

Clinton’s Health — Memes and fake stories claimed she was gravely ill or unfit for office.

Immigration & the Border — Fear-mongering posts about migrants, Muslims, and “open borders.”

Race & Policing — Fake BLM pages vs. Blue Lives Matter memes to deepen divides.

Religion — Anti-Muslim propaganda, “Christian values under attack” themes.

Traditional Values & Anti-LBGTQ+ — Posts portraying LGBTQ+ rights as a Western assault on morality, while pushing “family values” rhetoric “aligned” with Russia.

Election Integrity — Claims of “rigged voting machines” and ballot fraud, seeding distrust before Election Day.

Third-Party Boosts — Troll accounts urging votes for Jill Stein or Bernie Sanders to siphon support from Clinton.

Repetitive Memes

Hillary in prison stripes.

Hillary’s “illness” memes to question her fitness.

Anti-immigration “keep out migrants” graphics.

Fake BLM protest graphics designed to inflame divisions.

“Heart of Texas” memes railing against Muslims and immigrants.

Endless recycled slogans like “Crooked Hillary” and “Lock Her Up,” amplified until they felt organic.

A Few Samples of False Flag Protests (All Staged by the IRA)

Houston, 2016: Anti-Muslim rally vs. “United Muslims of America” counter-rally — both sides summoned by trolls.

Dallas, 2016: “Blue Lives Matter” vs. “Black Lives Matter” dueling protests (same time and location).

By The Numbers

126 million Americans reached on Facebook.

50,000 bots on Twitter.

2 million+ tweets about the 2016 election.

$100,000 spent on U.S. ads that helped spark street protests.

IRA vs. Wagner

Wagner: Mercenaries; operations in Ukraine, the Balkans, Latin America, Syria, and Africa.

IRA: Trolls, memes, fake personas, fake pages, fake news sites, operations online.

Both were built to give the Kremlin deniability while carrying out Russia’s hybrid war.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit saltypolitics.substack.com/subscribe

This is a very serious geopolitical moment. Thank you to everyone who joined Olga Lautman and me for an emergency Live to discuss a brewing crisis that cable news and most legacy media ignored tonight.

If you missed it live, you can watch the recording above.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit saltypolitics.substack.com/subscribe

A belated release of this week’s Taco Tuesday with Frederic Poag and Michelle Kinney!

We had such a great time talking about life — with a little politics sprinkled in.

This week we discussed the existential question of our times: if your significant other turned into a Trumper after marriage (like RFK Jr. did), would you stick with the relationship (like Cheryl Hines has) or would you bail?

This was a tougher one for some of us than for others. Let me know what you think in the comments.

If you need a little break from the grind of, well, everything, check it out and join us next Tuesday for another episode.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit saltypolitics.substack.com/subscribe