The Yandex data center strikes have probably had more effect on bot traffic than the russians would dare admit. This U.S. midterm cycle had a more muted and boring experience. Find it highly unlikley this is a coincidence.

Further - out of all the strategic weaknesses russia has proven unable to defend - I find the data centers one to be the most interesting. Why?

Becuase there's so few of them in russia for starters - only 6 i think. Big, indefensible, stationary server farms. The bot farms are also an essential part of Russia's strategy to fart out corrosive bullshit onto the world. They're very good at it - it's one of the few things they do REALLY well, and the tech oligarchs have shown themselves to be NO ally of the west in terms of stopping it, as long as it drives engagement on their platforms.

Further - you hear a lot of "it won't matter, because Russia will just move the data elsewhere". Think about that for a second. Their bot farms are a critical, effective strategic tool. Moving one of your best capabilities out of your data centers to, say, China's, is like moving your nuclear weapon infrastrcture from your control to someone else's. China has copied and stolen everything it can get it's hands on for over a century. They will surely be stealing everything that Russia shares with them. These are not simple commercial agreements that have enforceable contract law - these are critical national defense assets with a proven capability to influence the population of your enemy. They got Donald Fucking Trump elected - twice - by serving social media bullshit to racist uncles and groyper troll fascist millenials. Powerful stuff.

It is strategically a MASSIVE vulnerability to have to move your server farms to another country that isn't REALLY an ally. China is China's friend, full stop. Nobody else's. It serves them to have a weak, junior vassal colony in Russia that they can treat like a resource yard.