An early sign of Russia’s infowars

I think we can safely file this 2016 New York Times piece under the “we should have taken this more seriously” category:

But pro-Russian voices have become such a noisy and disruptive presence that both NATO and the European Union have set up special units to combat what they see as a growing threat not only to civil discourse but to the well-being of Europe’s democratic order and even to its security.

This “information war,” said Rastislav Kacer, a veteran diplomat who served as Slovakia’s ambassador to Washington and at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels, “is just part of a bigger struggle.” While not involving bloodshed, he added, it “is equally as dangerous as more conventional hostile action.”

Organised efforts to spread division within a country, coupled with attack on anyone investigating it? That seems familiar.