Russian Media Laughs At Accusations Kremlin Helped Trump Win

Just “150 pages of internet memes.” That was the dismissive verdict of one Russian government television channel to the release of two sweeping new reports for the US Senate into Moscow’s disinformation campaign around the 2016 presidential election.

The controversy over disinformation was proof, said a sarcastic piece from the state news service, that Moscow’s most “potent weapon” against American is “truth, told with a smile,” referring to the success of the Russian social media campaign.

Moscow has repeatedly denied interfering in the vote to help President Donald Trump win, and so the reaction of many outlets to these latest investigations was tantamount to a weary shrug.

On state-run Rossiya-1, the program mocked the latest details to emerge from the US about Russian disinformation, with the newscaster running a translation of a sketch from this weekend’s Saturday Night Live (SNL) broadcast poking fun at President Trump.

The show was a play on the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and the fictional Trump — played by Alec Baldwin — travels back in time to see what life would be like if he had never become president.

The Russian broadcaster condemned what it called this “campaign against the boss in the White House,” likening the behavior of the SNL comedians to that of “liberal” journalists.

Although the evidence of Russian meddling has piled up, the Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed US accusations that it helped Trump win in 2016.

“You really think that from the territory of the Russian Federation it’s possible to influence elections in the United States?” said Russian President Vladimir Putin during an interview with Fox News earlier this year. “That’s just funny.”