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I think a lot of this is just how soft power looks when the enemy does it. The russians of course have their narrative about colour revolutions, and the recent USAID cuts have certainly found a lot of direct state involvement in "independent media". Theres arguments that ours is in some way legit and theirs manipulation, but thats far too deep into the ideological weeds to be the basis of a diplomatic rule.
Little green men are just Russian troops out of uniform. That isn't soft power, it's hard power deployed perfidiously.
I agree that Russian social media troll ops look like Voice of America in reverse if you don't start with "democracy good" biases.
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