2008: British National Party membership lists published. 2010: Leaks from Manning, including diplomatic cables and Iraq/Afghanistan war documents. Note that so far many leftists have been pleased by Wikileaks, while many Republicans have denounced them.
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I recall in 2010 some talk about how America would be harmed by the release of diplomatic cables, to the benefit of Russia. However, the true origin of the Wikileaks/Russia conspiracy theory was 2013 with the Snowden leaks.
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In 2013, Snowden leaked documents related to NSA spying, and Wikileaks subsequently helped him get asylum in Russia. This is when people started talking about Assange as a "Russian agent". It began as pure speculation, but people simply repeated it as obviously true.
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Around 2013, it also became common to talk of the financial site ZeroHedge as Russian propaganda, although the accusation appears to date to 2011 (See http://streetwiseprofessor.com/peas-in-a-pod-occupy-rt-and-zero-hedge/ …). This accusation had no genuine basis, but nevertheless the hacking/leaks/meddling theory was forming.
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Meanwhile, in 2011 uprisings occurred throughout the Middle East during the "Arab Spring". Obama/Hillary favored the ousting of governments in Libya, Syria, and Egypt, while Russia generally opposed them.
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So the Syrian Civil War began in 2011, and Russia favored Assad while the US favored various insurgents including rebels that either aligned with or later became ISIS. This put the US and Russia in almost direct conflict and heightened tensions.
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So, by 2013 the deep state had become very anti-Russia due to the Syria/ISIS situation and the Snowden situation. In 2014, unrest in Ukraine led to the Russia annexation of Crimea, and this further increased anti-Russian sentiment and rhetoric from US politicians.
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At this point, Donald Trump enters the scene. A natural isolationist, he wonders why the US is getting involved in all this. What's the point of supporting ISIS over Assad? What's the point of sanctions over Crimea? What's in this for Americans?
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So Trump enters the presidential race in 2015, and it quickly becomes clear that, unlike Hillary, he is interested in detente with Russia. Needless to say, Putin likes what he hears (Putin doesn't want direct conflict or sanctions with the US).
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When did the "Russia is meddling in our democracy/hacking our election" meme start, specifically? I think it must have been immediately after Assange/Wikileaks first leaked any campaign documents related to the 2016 election.
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Assange was of course a "known Russian agent" (note: not really), so any leaks related to the election were obviously attacks by Putin on American Democracy. This became the conventional wisdom even before Hillary accused Russia of these leaks during the debates.
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Naturally, after the election the obvious scapegoat was Putin. Putin meddled with American Democracy (note: there is little to no evidence for this) and prevented Her from taking Her rightful position.
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What's the big point here? That all of this started with speculation about Assange and Wikileaks that simply became accepted without evidence due to geopolitical considerations and the need for a scapegoat.
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(We could include the Crowdstrike report or the "17 intelligence agencies" stuff in here, but all of that was actually a result of the unfounded suspicions that were whipped up in the wake of Snowden)
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This is a good timeline. But you omit a lot of key details. 1. Trump's weird connection to Russia was well publicized during GOP primary. 2. Russia's use of social media to undermine trust in US news media was being reported as far back as 2014.
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3. Wikileaks teased a leaks detailing Russia government corruption. It never materialized. This wasn't long before Snowden.
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1. Russia has been the lib/neocon bogeyman since 2014, so chatter about Trump being connected to Russia can only be considered in light of that. In other words, even during the GOP primaries they were just using "Russian ties" as a smear without evidence due to favoring detente.
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2. These reports are worthy of being trusted in the same way that "Assange is a Russian agent" can be trusted. This is classic herd/groupthink behavior against the perceived enemy.
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3 is most interesting and worthy of looking into more. It's possible some kind of deal was struck in order to get Snowden to safety.
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(Although I don't specifically remember that detail)
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