The man accused of mailing pipe bombs to Democratic politicians and donors and CNN seems to have made multiple positive references online to Russian friends and support for the Russian government's stance in Syria.
His South Florida residence is close to an area with a large Russian immigrant population.
Cesar Sayoc, 56, a vocal supporter of President Trump who was arrested in Florida on Friday and charged with multiple federal crimes, apparently spoke of “my Russian brothers” on several occasions on a Facebook page in 2015. The meaning of the references to Russians is not clear, nor is it clear how Sayoc came to view and share propaganda sympathetic to Russian actions in Syria.
Facebook removed the account from public view after news spread of Sayoc’s arrest. But The Washington Post obtained hundreds of public posts from 2015 and 2016 from Columbia University social media researcher Jonathan Albright, who downloaded them Friday before Facebook removed the information.
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Similar themes emerged in a Twitter account that appears to have belonged to Sayoc, under the name “hardrockintlent,” which uses a variation on Sayoc’s name and a business affiliated with him, as well as his picture ...
The “hardrockintlent” account — which lists the name “Julus Cesar Milan” as the owner — in July 2016 posted about “my brothers in from Russia the great leader Puttins relatives visiting us today” at a Hard Rock Cafe in South Florida. “Puttins” appears to be a misspelled reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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On at least five occasions in 2015 — three times in April, once in June and once in October — the Facebook account included posts referring to “my Russian Brothers” and picturing a smiling Sayoc wearing a suit and posing alongside what appear to be friends. The posts list specific places, nicknames of people and communities, such as Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach, with large Russian populations.
These references to Russian associates on Facebook are repetitive, rambling and hard to understand. Before his arrest Friday, Sayoc lived in an area of suburban Miami with a large Russian community, meaning the Russians described on the Facebook page may have been simply friends of that nationality. Elsewhere on Facebook Sayoc speaks of “my Italian Brothers.”
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The posts showed fixations on certain subjects, including Miami sports teams, youth soccer, Native American themes and businesses Sayoc was seeking to promote. But in April 2016, after several months of not posting on Facebook, the account abruptly changed subjects to link to videos celebrating Syria’s fight against ISIS.
“He just pops up four months later and just relentlessly shares stories about ISIS and terrorists,” said Albright. “The turn is just remarkable… He found ideas that never let go from that point on.”
The posts fit with Kremlin propaganda themes, portraying Russia and Syrian government forces favorably as they battled “terrorists” in what U.S. officials for years have portrayed as a legitimate uprising against the authoritarian government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Many of the video links in the spurt of Facebook posts from April 2016 come from the English-language service of an Iranian state-owned broadcaster, Al-Alam. Iran has supported Assad in Syria’s civil war, as have the Russians.