I doubt that anyone would deny that there are some poor Ivans that get paid a couple rubles per post to shit russian propaganda all over the internet. And those post also on kc. But there is a big difference between that an claiming that everything is run by the government.
Listening to psychology podcasts made me realise that imageboards aren't just some random websites for weirdos but genuinely operated by intelligence agencies to test propaganda and mind viruses. I'm pretty sure that kohlchan (and likely this site too) is run by russian intelligence and there's plenty of evidence for this for those who look through the archives. russian operatives occasionally make threads on kc under russian balls and they never reply to other people's threads. there's a number of reasons why such operatives don't obscure their countryball with VPN. partly because they know they know it's false security(NSA for example has a policy that operatives should not use hacked botnets to obscure traffic because it can be easily tracked) but also because this office runs hundreds of different sites(mostly russian speaking) and the worker isn't going to change his MO for one site that he visits a few times per month.
Russian intelligence bought kc and hundreds websites. Including 4chan. How the fuck do you think a website like that can survive? Look at how much influence all these imageboards are having on real life culture. What started as probably a joke and then millions of people IRL call themselves Qanon and people are storming the capital. This isn't organic. It's targeted soviet black propaganda. The network of 'alternative' sites is their playground. Everything is brewing here and seeps into broader conciousness. They are having real life effects. KC is especially interesting to them for its german userbase.
Russian bots are very much real, but do not forget about how self-absorbed and narcissist the Russians are. When we're talking about things such as /chug/ or other demoralizing efforts on 4chan's /pol/ (legitimately an influential board that provides content and opinions for the outside world, have to admit that no matter how stinky it is) - sure, it's not organic at all and some psychological warfare is certainly involved. Which doesn't necessarily mean that we're looking at an entire office of Russian bots chatting with each other there, it is possible that a single operative, or a small group of operatives, is only responsible for subverting the "core" of the discord clique that naturally forms around the "general" threads, and then the useful idiots continue their job for free.
But when we look at places like kohl - I think it has more to do with Russian narcissism. Russian tredas about Russia are mostly organic on small boards, it's just that Russia has a very painful complex of having to be in the center of attention, which affects both decision-making in the highest echelons of power and opinions of ordinary ivans.
