Long Shadow Panic World: Russiagate (Bonus)
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Jan 7, 2026 
Garrett M. Graff, Pulitzer-finalist historian and national security journalist, revisits Russiagate and why it keeps drawing him back. He maps how Russian interference reshaped media dynamics, teases the split between troll farms and hack operations, and traces the fallout from WikiLeaks to Pizzagate and QAnon. They end by weighing platform amplification, future threats from AI, and where hope might come from.
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Russia Changed The Campaign's Media Terrain
- Russian interference reshaped the media environment more than individual votes.
- That altered information landscape likely changed the trajectory of the 2016 campaign and its fallout.
One Scandal Begat Many Crises
- The Russia story seeded a chain of events from Flynn to Mueller to impeachments and January 6.
- That single cascade reframed American politics and empowered grievance-driven politics around Trump.
How A Restaurateur Built A Troll Empire
- Garrett recounts how the Internet Research Agency evolved from domestic propaganda to meddling in U.S. politics.
- He explains Yevgeny Prigozhin's unusual profile as a restaurateur-turned-propaganda and mercenary operator.
