Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

President Trump, I'm Russian and I'm Not Laughing

I fear the indictment of Russian internet trolls may lead to less freedom for both Americans and Russians.

February 19, 2018 at 3:47 PM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

We used to share a laugh.
Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

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"They are laughing their asses off in Moscow," President Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday as part of his damage control after 13 Russian Facebook trolls were indicted for meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Really?

Some Russians -- including the man who runs the indicted troll factory -- are indeed laughing, but I'm one Russian who isn't. The fallout from the indictment comes too close to a couple of lines, both in U.S.-Russian relations and in attitudes toward free speech, that it would be best not to cross.