I am sure most if your are aware there has been evidence of Russian hackers and trolls using bots to load stuff into Twitter etc to stir things up, like "Texit" and "Calexit". BBC World service prog "Trending" has something about this.
What frightens me is the fact that despite the poor English etc these actions are provoking potentially violent, armed, actions amongst the more cerebally challenged of the extremist community. But, such, as in recent examples on this forum, probably cannot spot errors in English anyway!
It is only one item in the following:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csvtny
The was once a novel entitled, "Not with a bang", by Chapman Pincher, from the T. S. Elliot quotation, "This is the way the world will end, not with a bang but a whimper." The novel involved a drug gone wrong, but it could involve - so far as the Western world is concerned, electronic/political/emotional espionage and sabotage of this type.
The Russian government has been tampering not just with American affairs, but with European as well, including Brexit (http://www.wired.co.uk/article/brexit-russia-adverts-facebook). I expect that any attempt to quantify the effects of their efforts is futile, but it's clear that they think it's worthwhile. While I don't think they will be able to actually topple the western alliance through their shenanigans I also don't think that's the goal. Rather they're hoping to help foment dissension and erode western stability. Since things are tending in that direction already, if they can add to that trend they'll consider it money well spent.
Yes, I think it is because I am not a "social media" person, and cspable of a little critical thinking (in addition to bring choosy about my news sources) I tend to miss a lot of this stuff. But the emphasis on the BBC news and current affairs (which is not always all that well presented) does seem to be on the Russian efforts re America.
I have no doubt that all chances to put the boot into Western affairs will be gleefully grabbed but, perhaps, at the moment America is the plumpest of the low hanging fruit? Not that they exactly have to expend much effort with Trump as the maggot eating that fruit from within.
Yes, we have the lesser, but still very embarrasing, maggots of May and Corbyn over here. Though not in the Trump class they are dtill capable of ruining this country.
Putin is a very clever man and well capable of continuing the Byzantine politics, with more covert than overt agents at every point, that Russia has practiced, with fine art, throughout its history. Bumbling fools stand little chance against him.