Russian bots and trolls have been hitting the digital bricks to help get Republicans elected ahead of the midterms, this time seeing a clear link between GOP control of Congress and getting an edge on the battlefield in Ukraine, the New York Times reports. “It’s clear they are trying to get them to cut off aid and money to Ukraine,” said former Pentagon Army info ops official Alex Plitsas, now with Providence Consulting Group. Other consultants say the effort is smaller scale than the 2016 Russian disinfo campaign, probably owing to the fact that plenty of American right wingers are saying pretty much the same shit. It’s also mainly focused on MAGA social media networks like Gab, Parler, GETTR, and Truth Social. “The audiences are much, much smaller than on your other traditional social media networks. But you can engage the audiences in much more targeted influence ops because those who are on these platforms are generally U.S. conservatives who are maybe more accepting of conspiratorial claims,” said intel analyst Brian Liston.