Russia: A Conspiracy Theory Against United Russia in Yaroslavl’s LJ Case · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Writing in the politics-ru LiveJournal community [ru], user oficer2001 [ru] alleges that pat-index, the blogger at the center of the case in Yaroslavl (where LJ was banned by court order), is actually a United Russia member, raising concerns that the Russian authorities are already using state-sponsored trolls to flood the RuNet with illegal material, in order to justify censorship. Oficer2001‘s theory has holes, however. In a June 2007 post [ru], for instance, pat-index slammed United Russia as a “shrewd,” “anti-people” party. Other aspects of oficer2001‘s allegations are similarly questionable.