ProPublica's Justin Elliott reports that a series of opinion columns praising Russia's "ambitious modernization strategy" and "enforcement of laws designed to better protect business and reduce corruption" published in the last two years on CNBC.com and the Huffington Post
were written by "seemingly independent professionals" but were paid PR placements "on behalf of the Russian government by its public-relations firm, Ketchum."
In other words, the Kremlin paid Ketchum to write (or acquire) then place puff pieces in the online publications; neither the Kremlin nor Ketchum paid CNBC or HuffPo.
Full disclosure: Boing Boing does occasionally run items written by guestbloggers, but we do make sure none of them are being paid to pimp by Putin.
IN SOVIET RUSSIA, POST HUFFINGTONS YOU!
