I Killed a Russian Troll

At least I think he was a Russian troll. Clearly a troll, spreading disinformation, in a way Putin would like. And I’m guessing a “he” based on his demeanor, but I might be wrong about that.

Last Sunday, 9 January 2022, I saw someone on Twitter posting some nonsense, so I replied in what I think was a thoughtful way; I think I made a good point. He replied in a trollish way, I replied, etc.

Then I started to wonder who he was, I checked. His account was just a few hours old! He followed only one account and had only one follower (same person who followed him back). He was still wet behind the ears.

Except he was very good at trolling, he clearly was not new to Twitter.

So my 4th tweet at him was:

Wait. You are just a Russian troll?

And I started asking him questions about his job. (I think some of them were pretty good.)

He never answered my questions directly, but he did reply in ways to try to bolster his supposed Boston location, talking about Dunkin’ and swerving when he drives, and something else easy to Google that I forget.

I wish I had a complete record of our exchanges. Between my off-brand Twitter client on my phone and another copy on my tablet, I still have a lot of his tweets, but not all.

At one point he was trying to be condescending, to put me in a childish position, he asked whether I have been given a lollipop. But he said “lolli”. I have lived in Boston a long time, I called him on it, that is not how a Bostonian talks. I told him I have heard my next door neighbor say “lolli”, but that my next door neighbor was born in the UK.

He was thorough, he looked at other things I tweeted. In one I replied to a tweet by NPR’s @ElBeardsley. She had just arrived in Kyiv on a reporting trip, I said I had been scheduled to go there, but a pandemic intervened.

My troll replied. Repeating the “Kyiv” version of the city. I called him on that, said his Boston character would have been more likely write “Kiev”, I also pointed out that a Russian troll who was actually Russian would more likely spell it “Kiev”. (Saying “Kyiv” is more sensitive to Ukrainians.) I asked him whether he is actually Ukrainian. I asked whether he is worried by Putin’s buildup of troops on their border.

My logic on his name for the city didn’t hold water—he was quoting back what I had written—but he didn’t call me on it. He did accuse me of being the Russian troll, however.

I did rat him out a few times, telling people he was trolling that he was an apparent Russian troll. I praised him for being good at his job, observed that he tried hard to not actually lie. Be disingenuous, sure, that was his job. But he worked hard to not lie.

Yesterday, 15 January, I checked in on him again. He was still trolling, and I squealed on him again. I noticed someone who had blocked both of us had unblocked me. I replied to a previous tweet about the blocking:

Now I noticed I am no longer blocked.

I see you are trolling this morning.

And he blocked me. Or so I thought.

This morning I used a different account to see what he was up to…and the account has been deleted.

I killed him!


If someday in the future whoever was running @bsacamano545 (“bob sacamano”) is in a new line of work and can reminisce about old times, I’d love to talk.

In the mean time, “bob”, be well, stay safe,

-kb, the Kent who bets you don’t look at all like the Twitter avatar that was on the account.

©2022 Kent Borg

P.S. I still want to know which vaccine you got.

P.P.S. Comments are broken and have been for sometime. Sorry.

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