Lazy KGB agents in the United States used to read the New York Times for the latest happenings in America, reworded the articles as their "spy" reports, then submitted them to the Kremlin.
Soviet leaders never suspected that they were being conned, because the concepts of open societies and major press organs reporting real and truthful news just never occurred to them. So they bought the reports as keen works of spycraft.
Russian propagandists are still at the KGB's habit of reading the Times, except they mistake what's written in merely one op-ed piece as "American" opinion. KGB agents were simply scamming their bosses. One such propagandist and popular talk show host on Russian national television is Vladimir Solovyov, a vile, hateful man whom a detractor once called a "pederast monkey."
Anyway, while perusing the Times recently, Solovyov ran across an op-ed by the Yale historian of fascism Timothy Snyder, whose piece was titled "We Should Say It. Russia Is Fascist."
The title is self-explanatory, but I'll provide the text's flavor. "[Fascism is] back — and this time, the country fighting a fascist war of destruction is Russia," wrote Snyder. "If Russia wins in Ukraine, it won’t be just the destruction of a democracy by force, though that is bad enough. It will be a demoralization for democracies everywhere."
Solovyov took great offense. Whereupon he looked straight at the studio camera and spoke — shrieked — to the American people, all of whom Solovyov seemed to believe had written the NYT piece.
"Listen, you bastards, let me tell you a secret," barked the talking Russian head. "First of all, your signs [of fascism] are idiotic in their nature. Secondly, looking at your listed indications, how are they any different from the election campaign of Donald Trump? Down to his slogan, 'Make America Great Again.'"
Although Solovyov failed to grasp that an opinion piece written by a Yale professor wasn't the same as a national referendum, he did grasp that America has a fascism problem. And what better "indication" of that than the vile, hateful Donald Trump?
I must say, Mr. Solovyov fairly comprehends Snyder's description of fascism "as a cult of irrationality and violence" — and here, he correctly saw it embodied in the twice-impeached, demagogic authoritarian Trump.
Solovyov's problem is that he can't see it in Vladimir Putin as well.