I dunno about sophisticated. The presumably failed experiment with the #ColombianChemicals hoax was almost cute in its lack of direction or success[1]. It sounds like the sort of hoax Anonymous - teenagers without leadership or direction or payment - would successfully have pulled off. And the ironic thing is that even if they had the wherewithal to actually convince people, the rumour would barely have moved the needle compared with the hornets nests stirred up on a daily basis by rumours (true and false) spread by the mainstream Western press (much of which is sufficiently unprofitable for the price of influence to be affordable, incidentally[2])
If Russian propagandists are generally active in the Western media, it's difficult to view them as particularly effective: you'd have found more Western contemporaries willing to sympathise with Stalin than Putin, even during the McCarthy era, and Obama's approval ratings aren't doing too badly. I can't judge their effectiveness in Russian media, but I doubt that a particularly large proportion of the promoters of nationalism and bigotry are on Putin's payroll.... its not like their ilk is exactly nonexistent in the West.
Goebbels' message might have been more top-down and less subtle than Russia's social media spamming, but it did convince a reasonably well educated and well-to-do population that there was absolutely nothing wrong with rounding up all the Jews to deport, and convince the rest of Europe there was nothing to be particularly concerned about. That takes a little more effort than persuading Russians the West doesn't like them very much.
[1]to the extent that false explosion reports on September 11th can be considered cute
[2]Four mainstream British newspapers actually are owned by a wealthy Russian, though he's far too involved with Russian opposition parties to be inclined towards toning down their pretty standard critical editorial line on Russian policy
If Russian propagandists are generally active in the Western media, it's difficult to view them as particularly effective: you'd have found more Western contemporaries willing to sympathise with Stalin than Putin, even during the McCarthy era, and Obama's approval ratings aren't doing too badly. I can't judge their effectiveness in Russian media, but I doubt that a particularly large proportion of the promoters of nationalism and bigotry are on Putin's payroll.... its not like their ilk is exactly nonexistent in the West.
Goebbels' message might have been more top-down and less subtle than Russia's social media spamming, but it did convince a reasonably well educated and well-to-do population that there was absolutely nothing wrong with rounding up all the Jews to deport, and convince the rest of Europe there was nothing to be particularly concerned about. That takes a little more effort than persuading Russians the West doesn't like them very much.
[1]to the extent that false explosion reports on September 11th can be considered cute
[2]Four mainstream British newspapers actually are owned by a wealthy Russian, though he's far too involved with Russian opposition parties to be inclined towards toning down their pretty standard critical editorial line on Russian policy