She put on coffee. We talked for the rest of the night. Joanna had connected the suicides to participation in an online game linked to the Russian-based VKontakte social network, Russia’s answer to Facebook. The game consisted of a series of tasks assigned to players by an administrator over a fifty-day period; one task per day, innocuous to begin with, ending with them killing themselves.

‘The idea is to desensitise them, to test the limits of what can be achieved remotely, through online control. It originates with a unit set up by this man, Vladislav Vishinsky.’ She brought up a photo, a mugshot, early Nineties. ‘It was him, the one we saw in Ukraine. He was behind the whole thing in Turkey as well.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘I said you were paranoid about Russia. I was wrong. We’re getting the structure and operations of their Cyber-Cognitive Warfare unit. Vishinsky set it up. We think he was a qualified psychologist before spending time in prison, though it’s not clear what his offences were, as the record’s been wiped. His name appears in a document from 1993 called “How to Win Wars with Children’s Tears”. It’s a strategy proposal paper, possibly written while he was locked up, drawing heavily on America’s experience in Vietnam. He argues that Russia can’t compete on defence expenditure and they should fall back on psychology, use targeted psy campaigns to bring Russia together and to defeat their enemies abroad, move away from war in the physical environment towards a war in our minds. Or, as he puts it: from direct annihilation of the opponent to their inner decay.’

Joanna spoke calmly enough, stopping to sip coffee. She had the file in her brain, and relayed information as if it was as native to her as childhood memories.

‘Vishinsky draws on what the Soviet General Staff call reflexive control theory. It means feeding an opponent specially prepared information so that they make a decision of your choosing; owning their thought process. Vishinsky says the digital era is a gift, in this respect. Using these tactics, they can reclaim Greater Russia. The paper must have reached some influential people. He’s released early, sent to Moscow, given resources within the National Defence Control Centre. In documents, his unit is referred to as Unit 19.

‘By the early Noughties, Vishinsky’s being referred to as Volshebnik, the magician. We had a Russian defector walk into the British embassy in Istanbul, back in 1998. They were able to describe, in very vague terms, something originating in Unit 19 called ALKHIMIYA – Project Alchemy – which involved the control of populations. That was 1998, for Christ’s sake. Nothing was done.