Russia is targeting the US military with fake Facebook profiles of gorgeous women

pulse

June 12, 2017 10:20 PM

Russian hackers are infiltrating the social media accounts of US troops to spread propaganda and win over their hearts and minds.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the studios of state-owned media outlet Russia Today in 2013, he reportedly instructed them to break "

Politico reported on Monday that Russian hackers have been posing as attractive women and friending US troops on Facebook to gather intelligence about the military.

These actions are part of a larger Russian strategy aimed at manipulating and extracting intelligence from the US military.

Russia seems to be infiltrating the social media accounts of US troops for at least two reasons, according to Politico.

One, it

Two, it gives them the chance to make US troops sympathize with Russia by inserting propaganda into their news feeds.

For example,

“All of the response from the military guys was like, ‘That is awesome. That’s an epic way to die,’” she told Politico. “It was a very soldier-to-soldier bond that was created through social media.”

Russia is employing these hybrid warfare tactics against many Baltic states as well.

In fact, Kyiv recently outlawed Russian social media sites, which Ukrainian officials said were being used to spread propaganda. Human Rights Watch, however, accused Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko of trying to curb freedom of expression.

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