HMM: Google uncovers Russian-bought ads on YouTube, Gmail and other platforms.

Google previously downplayed the problem of Russian meddling on its platforms. Last month, Google spokeswoman Andrea Faville told The Washington Post that the company is “always monitoring for abuse or violations of our policies and we’ve seen no evidence this type of ad campaign was run on our platforms.”

Nevertheless, Google launched an investigation into the matter, as Congress pressed technology companies to determine how Russian operatives used social media, online advertising, and other digital tools to influence the 2016 presidential contest and foment discord in U.S. society.

Google declined to provide a comment for this story. The people familiar with its investigation said that the company is looking at a set of ads that cost less than $100,000 and that it is still sorting out whether all of the ads came from trolls or whether some originated from legitimate Russian accounts.

A sub-$100,000 ad buy is nothing in a virtually billion-dollar campaign. Reportedly, the ads were purchased to promote “Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and the Green party candidate Jill Stein,” who were all “certain” losers. So it still seems that the Kremlin was less interested in influencing the result of the election than in sowing dissent in the American public. On that score, they have been ably abetted by the mainstream media and high-level members of the Democratic Party.