Our intelligence agencies are barely functioning at this point, so I’m a little surprised they still have the independence and wherewithal to combat any Russian meddling in our elections at all.

Facebook took down a small network of fake accounts and pages associated with Russian operatives that had recruited U.S. journalists to write articles targeting left-leaning readers on topics such as racial justice, the Biden-Harris campaign and President Trump’s policies, the company said Tuesday.

Facebook said it caught the network of 13 fake accounts and two pages early, before it had a chance to build a large audience — an action that the company said was evidence of its growing effectiveness at targeting foreign disinformation operations ahead of the 2020 election. The takedown emerged as a result of a tip from the FBI and was one of a dozen operations tied to the Russian Internet Research Agency or individuals affiliated with it that Facebook has disrupted since the last presidential election, when IRA-backed pages amassed millions of views on the platform. The pages had about 14,000 followers.

There are a lot of angles I could take on this story, but I want to focus on just a few of them. First, this wasn’t Facebook doing a great job of sleuthing. They got tipped off by the FBI, so don’t believe them when they try to take credit for better security.

Second, the Russians “recruited U.S. journalists to write articles targeting left-leaning readers.” Not only that, but it involved the “co-option of unwitting locals.” In other words, they sought out left-wing critics of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and amplified their voices to do maximum damage to the ticket.

I’ve seen the process happen first hand, or least I believe I have. I don’t have the FBI’s resources to confirm my suspicions. But it’s not as hard to pull off as you might think. It’s like all spy recruitment. Find a good progressive writer who is experiencing financial hardship through some misfortune, like poor health and unmanageable medical bills, and make them an offer. You don’t tell them you’re a Russian intelligence officer, you just dangle money in front of them and encourage them to focus on the shortcomings of the Democratic Party. One of the weaknesses of the liberal blogosphere has always been that we don’t make much money. And we’re the ideal recruits.

“Hiring people who are fluent in the language and culture avoids the kind of tells that can expose an operation,” said Renée DiResta, technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, which has tracked the strategy.

One of the interesting things is that this doesn’t necessarily require the writer to change anything they’ve been doing. If they’re anti-establishment enough to begin with, all the Russians want to do is give them more reach. If they’re suffering from hurt feelings over Bernie Sanders losing his bid for the nomination, they can just keep hitting that nail over and over again.

One unfortunate byproduct of this is that an entire strain of hard-left thought becomes broadly suspect, and people who are not wittingly (or unwittingly) taking money are seen as probable Russian agents or dupes.

Frankly, it’s not possible to distinguish between these different types of situations and that’s another disruptive benefit for Moscow.

All I know is that any progressive writer who is spending September and October focused on anything other than beating Donald Trump and the Republicans is not worth your time. Personally, I’ll be taking notes, and I won’t forget.