My Russian friends are back.
A few years ago - specifically, during the 2016 election season - the number of hits that I received on my blog started to surge. I went from an average of 10,000 hits a month to a solid 15,000, then 20,000 and even managed to surpass 40,000 hits one month.
A quick check showed that the new audience was driven by clicks from Russia. Whether the clicks were driven by bots (most likely; I'm not that vain) or by the fact that I was writing a good deal about Russia - specifically, I was writing about Russian intrigue in Crimea, the Trump-Putin connection, or the developments surrounding the Russian Oligarchs - was unimportant. I'm not even interested in total clicks for financial reasons because I don't advertise anything (and ignore all requests to post ads).
As a political scientist my interest in the click surge was watching what was happening in real time as we were also learning how sophisticated the Russian social media and cyberwar game had become.
In very simple terms, I was impressed with what the Russians had put in place, and how effective their cyber intrusions had become (I was/am also a little disappointed in how clueless our electorate has become, and how spineless the GOP has become when it comes to Trump and Russia, but those are stories for another day).
Then the Russians virtually disappeared about a year and half ago. To be sure, I stopped posting as much as I normally did, but the disappearance was noticeable in my overall number of hits.
Today, I'm not so much writing about Russia's foreign policies (Putin's getting what he wants), the Russian oligarchs (they're happy-ish) or the Trump-Putin connection (Putin's abusing him like a government mule) as I am writing about Trump's political free fall. And, it would appear, my Russian FB friends are back to monitor the collapse.
At least that's my take on their return.
In any event, I say welcome back. And while I'm not happy watching our great nation being torn apart by our compromised bumbling buffoon of a president, and his Republican sycophants, speaking as a political scientist, За здоровье!
- Mark
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A few years ago - specifically, during the 2016 election season - the number of hits that I received on my blog started to surge. I went from an average of 10,000 hits a month to a solid 15,000, then 20,000 and even managed to surpass 40,000 hits one month.
A quick check showed that the new audience was driven by clicks from Russia. Whether the clicks were driven by bots (most likely; I'm not that vain) or by the fact that I was writing a good deal about Russia - specifically, I was writing about Russian intrigue in Crimea, the Trump-Putin connection, or the developments surrounding the Russian Oligarchs - was unimportant. I'm not even interested in total clicks for financial reasons because I don't advertise anything (and ignore all requests to post ads).
As a political scientist my interest in the click surge was watching what was happening in real time as we were also learning how sophisticated the Russian social media and cyberwar game had become.
______________________
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Then the Russians virtually disappeared about a year and half ago. To be sure, I stopped posting as much as I normally did, but the disappearance was noticeable in my overall number of hits.
Today, I'm not so much writing about Russia's foreign policies (Putin's getting what he wants), the Russian oligarchs (they're happy-ish) or the Trump-Putin connection (Putin's abusing him like a government mule) as I am writing about Trump's political free fall. And, it would appear, my Russian FB friends are back to monitor the collapse.
At least that's my take on their return.
In any event, I say welcome back. And while I'm not happy watching our great nation being torn apart by our compromised bumbling buffoon of a president, and his Republican sycophants, speaking as a political scientist, За здоровье!
- Mark
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