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Aro called]the recognition "precious … because my work also cost me a lot".
She suffered]Harassment and cyberattacks since she began reporting on Russian propaganda activities in 2014. Officials from the US Embassy in Helsinki asked her last October if she would accept an application for this award.
She thought it was a case made in January.
"But then she was kidnapped," she told CNN's Reliable Sources Sunday.
In the weeks leading up to the March 7 ceremony in Washington, the Aro Award was canceled.
The withdrawal of its price "really contradicts the very idea of this price," said Aro. She hinted that someone in the Trump administration lacked courage.
Aro said that she was grateful for the history of foreign policy because she had been unaware of what had happened.
But she was "horrified" that her comment on Trump was an apparent factor. She has gone through her previous tweets – as a February 17 response to the president, when he called the media "faked", "corrupted" and "enemies of the people". She answered him that day and said: "The Kremlin does not need any troll factory until it has been waiting for you!"
"I always keep what I said and what I tweeted," she said. "I think President Trump's attacks on the media are outrageous and should also be discussed on Twitter."
Addressing to an American audience, Aro said, "I'm really sorry for you, out there, if this is really the situation, if Trump or his administration were infected with fear and self-censorship. . "
After the publication of the history of foreign policy, the Democrats of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have obtained a series of emails between Aro and the State Department and have called the Inspector General of the Agency to investigate the circumstances.
A spokesman for the state department initially claimed that Aro had "been wrongly notified" that she had been selected as a finalist. "It was a mistake. It was a mistake ".
But internal emails cast doubt on this version of the events. E-mails indicated months of correspondence about the award and his planned trip to Washington. Things changed after an embassy official asked him to send a list of his "social media descriptors".
Aro said the initial claims of the State Department were "factually incorrect". And that is why she is grateful that senators are addressing the issue.
"I really want to know: who is the person who really gave the order to cancel my price? And what would he like to tell about his motivation to do it? ? "
"It does not really seem that the process of canceling my scholarship has followed the best practices and transparency policies of the State Department's governance," Aro added.
The Office of the Inspector General of the State Department did not comment on the possibility of an investigation.
As for why she was going to be recognized, Aro is currently working on a book about Russian troll farms. And she said that she would continue to train people to better recognize struggle and propaganda war efforts.
Aro said that Westerners still do not understand "how cynical and massive" the Russian effort really is.
"We do not understand the scale and impact of these Kremlin propaganda operations," she said. "Viral misinformation is used to manipulate and agitate real people, real people, in odious actions."
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