Like many people with access to the Internet and a holster full of
gadgets, Vladimir Nesterenko is living a double existence. In real life,
the 49-year-old Kiev native is a published author and darling of the
Ukrainian counterculture. Online, he's "Adolfych"—a Russian-speaking mischief-maker who uses his Twitter,
Facebook, and LiveJournal accounts to comment, sometimes thoughtfully
and often profanely, on the deepening conflict with Russia.
"I know a lot of Muscovites have little dachas in Abkhazia," he wrote in a recent post. "But could these Muscovites have afforded their little dachas if they hadn't gotten rid of the Georgians and turned a flourishing region into cheap fucking shit, like they're doing now in Crimea?"
On another post, responding to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's uncharacteristic chest-pounding over a recent round of Western sanctions, he scribbled gleefully, "Podkhuilo razbushevalos," a phrase, playing off Ukraine's favored insult of Vladimir Putin, that might best be translated as "Dickhead Jr.'s freaking out."
Adolfych is opinionated. He certainly has bad manners. But is he a troll? He says no. "I try not to lie. And I'm not on anyone's payroll." This, he says, sets him apart from the leagues of trolls who have become a noisy presence in the comment sections of media and social networks in Russia, Ukraine, and increasingly the West.
"I think most of these trolls are sellouts," Nesterenko says. "This is a category of people who I'm sure are paid some small amount of money, maybe $1,000 a month or less. But they're running legitimate blogs, they keep themselves busy. Sometimes they even publish something interesting. But when it's necessary, they also spread 'deza'"—shorthand for disinformation.
Note EU-Digest: Obviously this army of Trolls are operating on both sides of the political spectrum
Read more: The Kremlin's Troll Army - The Atlantic
"I know a lot of Muscovites have little dachas in Abkhazia," he wrote in a recent post. "But could these Muscovites have afforded their little dachas if they hadn't gotten rid of the Georgians and turned a flourishing region into cheap fucking shit, like they're doing now in Crimea?"
On another post, responding to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's uncharacteristic chest-pounding over a recent round of Western sanctions, he scribbled gleefully, "Podkhuilo razbushevalos," a phrase, playing off Ukraine's favored insult of Vladimir Putin, that might best be translated as "Dickhead Jr.'s freaking out."
Adolfych is opinionated. He certainly has bad manners. But is he a troll? He says no. "I try not to lie. And I'm not on anyone's payroll." This, he says, sets him apart from the leagues of trolls who have become a noisy presence in the comment sections of media and social networks in Russia, Ukraine, and increasingly the West.
"I think most of these trolls are sellouts," Nesterenko says. "This is a category of people who I'm sure are paid some small amount of money, maybe $1,000 a month or less. But they're running legitimate blogs, they keep themselves busy. Sometimes they even publish something interesting. But when it's necessary, they also spread 'deza'"—shorthand for disinformation.
Note EU-Digest: Obviously this army of Trolls are operating on both sides of the political spectrum
Read more: The Kremlin's Troll Army - The Atlantic
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