From Cold War conspiracies to modern-day cyber warfare, Russian propaganda has shaped elections,

fueled wars, and rewritten history, all without ever needing to fire a single shot.

During the Soviet era, their propaganda efforts were called active measures, a mix of fake news,

forged documents, and planted stories designed to destabilize the West. Today it takes the form of

hacked emails, deep fake videos, and viral social media posts all engineered to manipulate what we

believe. And Russia is currently manipulating what many of us believe. And most of those being

manipulated probably have no idea it's even happening.

In 2016, the Russian Internet Research Agency, a Kremlin-backed propaganda generator disguised

as a private digital marketing firm, ran a covert interference campaign influencing

126 million Americans on Facebook alone. Their reach didn't stop there either. They also targeted millions

more on Twitter and Instagram using tens of thousands of fake accounts to spread disinformation at the

speed of a click. At its peak, the IRA bought over $100,000 worth of ads and posted 80,000 pieces of content that pushed narratives to divide the U.S.

electorate and benefit one political candidate. The IRA's objective with all of this was not to put a candidate in power who would be more sympathetic to Russian interests, but instead to sow overall discord in America, to undermine confidence in all U.S.

democratic institutions, and ultimately, and this is so insidious, to manipulate Americans' perception

of reality itself. Today, we'll be going over the evolution of Russia's Internet Research

Agency, one that morphed

into Storm 1516, and explain the methods these groups have used to influence the minds of Americans

as well as answer the questions. How did the Soviet information operational tactics, once refined

in secret KGB offices, resurface in modern Russia to influence global politics today.

How do the same propaganda machine that once divided nations during the Cold War transform

into a digital juggernaut capable of reshaping reality online? And why is Russia doing this?

What's the end game? From the DNC hack to the spreading of false stories about

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