Researchers have tracked QAnon posts on social media and found that Russian government-sponsored organizations are increasingly amplifying those messages to expand their bandwidth and acceptance, Reuters reports.
While the researchers do not think the Russians initiated the QAnon conspiracy, they do believe Russians have capitalized on the movement and helped to shape it from irrelevant foolery to a influential group of Trump supporters.
Specifically, RT and Sputnik news feeds have retweeted and forwarded posts on various social media sites to provide wider coverage of QAnon pro-Trump memes.
“Though Russia is only one foreign actor capable of targeting US political audiences through the QAnon community, its history of operations appear to be the most ideologically aligned with the overarching QAnon theory,” the report said. “Russia also appears to have made the most effort to gain credibility within the community thus far.”