Just a heads up, missing from the NYTimes highlights is a conclusion that RT ran anti-fracking activist programming as well, with the suggested goal being to increase dependence on Gazprom oil:
Thanks, that is really interesting. Just last night, we were speculating what, besides general chaos, might be Russia's interest in Turnip, and fracking vs. oil came up.
It's kind of a baffling feeling, to be anti-fracking and to have to sort out what parts of your anti-fracking background information may have been derived from propaganda.
I would bet that Russia also has a longstanding policy to push propaganda against nuclear power. RT was raising a great deal of alarm after Fukushima, for example.
I don't mean to claim that all propaganda is false, or that you have to start supporting fracking or fission or anything, but it is always important to consider potential conflicts of interest with this stuff. As another example, Friends of the Earth was started by an oil company executive:
It's kind of a baffling feeling, to be anti-fracking and to have to sort out what parts of your anti-fracking background information may have been derived from propaganda.