The Macedonian connection

It may sound like a script for a shitty movie about a conspiracy against democracy. Some youngsters from a small town flood another country's election campaign with lies, affecting events at the other side of the world, and contributing to the election victory of a radical underdog candidate for whom far fewer people would have voted otherwise. A true triumph of crappy fiction over sensible reality, right?

Except that story is not so far away from the truth...