The biggest newspaper to support Leave were - The Sun and The Daily Mail. The Sun is owned by Rupert Murdoch who is a Australian right wing media mogul who main goal isn't to work for Putin but to make himself richer, The Daily Mail is owned by Daily Mail and General Trust plc(A media group)and chaired by Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere(Yes that's his real name)they also have no links to Putin.
Whilst I fully agree that Murdoch only really cares about getting rich, Murdoch owned/had a controlling interest in News Outdoor Russia, an advertising firm located there, he would've been on Putin's radar for doing business there, let alone the fact he's as well known as they come. One of his other companies has also been investigated by the FBI for bribing officials in Russia for various news stories too. Think they would've operated like this and Putin wouldn't have been interested?
More over, he's close friends with Trump which, if what a serious amount of us believe to be true, means he's probably close to Putin too. Interesting little tidbit - Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are quite close to Roman Abramovich's wife Dasha Zhukova, who introduced Zhukova to Kushner and Trump? Murdoch's ex-wife, Wendy. If there's not more to that relationship and how Murdochs then wife was introducing Russians to the Trump family (and the potential for her doing that alone without Rupert involved) then I'll buy you a beer. Abramovich is of course, very close to Putin.
Jonathan Harmsworth, wonderful official title and all (god I want a Viscount biscuit now) has/had a residence in Russia. Forbes reported on it here.
https://www.forbes.com/business/lists/2006/10/TYUE.html
Rich people in Russia are invariably linked to the oligarchs so by extension, Putin.
DMGT, as you mentioned, sold the Evening Standard to Alexander Lebedev in 2009. Lebedev is a huge spokesperson for Putin and an oligarch. Why are Russians trying to buy English publications? And would it be a stretch to imagine higher ups in DMGT, like Harmsworth having connections to said Russians like Lebedev beyond simply selling them a paper?
Call me a conspiracy theorist if you like but it all falls back to being rich and Russia and that only means one thing, every single time: Vladimir Putin.
Both tenuous links I'll admit but from everything we know about how things operate in Russia. Rich outsiders, hell rich Russians only get things done, whatever those things are, by working with the oligarchs. The oligarchs are all linked to, by means of direct control, Putin. He oversees everything and has ultimate say over everything. The man is a mafia don who controls everything with an iron fist, Russia is basically a mafia state. He's the most influential, powerful and richest man on the planet.
I can only suggest to you to read or look up Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent because your actually partly right but quickly veering off into conspiracy talk.
I will actually look at Chomsky's stuff, if only because I enjoy reading and hearing what he has to say.
So now Putin don't give a shit about elections now ? If so then why did a Russian Bank which has link to the Kremlin lend Le Penn €11m in loans in 2014 ? You can't say every time a liberal loses that it's a Russian conspiracy and every time a liberal wins that well the Russian just didn't bother.
Putin does give a shit about elections, of course he does. He wants favourable people in positions of power, hence Le Pen, hence Trump, etc. (bet he pumped some money Wilders way too as a hunch).
I said that the people don't take in as much for general elections as they would've/should've done for Brexit so therefore it'd be harder for bot networks to do what they do and influence a big majority. For general elections people are stuck in their ways and they're a very 'local' thing. The general messages and reasoning for voting is the same every time and there's not much to gain from trying to influence it unless someone turns up who is radically different and suddenly popular. Very few votes in the UK actually matter when you realise how absolutely confirmed most of the country is for Labour or Conservative. We have our own swing states like the US do and that's where any targeted propaganda would take place.
Again you can't just say this without backing it up with some evidence. But ok lets say your right who's side was Putin on ?
I'm sceptical of the Russian links with Brexit because of the lack of evidence(The only evidence you've gave is you looking at the comments on twitter).
http://uk.businessinsider.com/twitt...xit-bot-network-were-russian-2018-1?r=US&IR=T
As I've intimated, I don't believe Twitter are being truthful nor are they truly aware of the scope of the problem on their platform so even if they were trying to be truthful, they couldn't be. They talk about a certain section of bots and try and see if it's the IRA in Russia which is but one of many troll farm organisations. This to me highlights that they're not taking a serious look at it but trying to assuage people's suspicions with minimum fuss.
Fact is, enough 'bots' can and will influence an awful lot of people and without going into every tweet about Brexit and analysing every profile that tweeted it I can't on my own provide the evidence you're probably going to be satisfied with.
But I don't think we are going to agree which is fine. Still thanks for taking the time to response to my posts.
I agree on this and thanks for your responses too, if nothing else it feels good to have a rant every once in a while and be forced to justify your beliefs. We could do a lot better by having to back up why we think and feel the way we do and it should always be challenged.