Infoguerre

According to the Kremlin’s disinformation mouth-pieces, the big show in town this week, quite literally, was the visit of North Korean Supreme Leader (read: dictator) Kim Jong-Un to Russia. It was a welcome distraction from the 3-day-‘special military operation’ – turned-into-endless-existential-war for most pro-Kremlin outlets. As such, it enjoyed broad and detailed, if heavily disinformation-laden, coverage. Kremlin disinformation pundits balance between praising the relationship with the DPRK and appearing to be too needy of North Korean help, as Kim Jong-Un’s visit provided a welcome distraction from the Ukrainian counteroffensive and economic troubles in Russia.

In 2021 the Lukashenko regime introduced a new state holiday, “the Day of People’s Unity”, to be celebrated on the 17th of September. With all its propaganda, it has tried to gloss over the fact that the 17th of September is first and foremost remembered as the anniversary of the Soviet attack and invasion of Poland in 1939, which was planned in coordination with Nazi Germany following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, signed in August 1939. The Belarusian people – school children in particular – are constantly fed pro-USSR narratives and anti-western propaganda, with Poland portrayed as a real demon to bolster the “Day of People’s Unity”. Back to the USSR

In recent weeks EUvsDiSiNFO has picked up a new wave of attacks against European officials and institutions. This time, not all of it is coming from Russia, the Belarusian regime is in on it as well. Such incidents also serve as a timeless reminder of the fact that we cannot really trust our eyes only. When in slightest doubt, we should always check the source of our information. Impersonation is not new… It is a favoured technique among pro-Kremlin actors. Thanks to this new way of monitoring the threat landscape – focusing on manipulative behaviour in addition to disinformation narratives – we can now detect and expose this type of manipulative behaviour that the Kremlin and their allies are using to target Europeans on a regular basis.

With both Yandex and Google aiding [the Kremlin] in pursuing its hostile information policy, the majority of Russians see the world very different from what it is in reality. Lev Gershenzon, former Head of Yandex.News (2007–2012), is currently working at The True Story, a new censorship-free news aggregator. The True Story was launched on 22 August 2023 and blocked in Russia just three days later. Following the publication of his research paper by the German Council on Foreign Relations, he spoke to EUvs-DiSiNFO.

When objective reality refuses to bend to the Kremlin’s will, Kremlin propagandists attempt to substitute it with their illusions. In last week’s iteration of Disinfo Review, we covered the Kremlin information manipulation ecosystem’s habit of staying mum about topics that they do not have clear instructions on, or that they wish to stay away from the limelight. This week, though, it seems that the Kremlin disinformation peddlers have received a clearer set of instructions to follow. like true gamblers, Kremlin minions are hedging their bets.

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine made Kazakhstan realise its own identity… In an interview with EUvsDiSiNFO, Vyacheslav Abramov says « if you speak only Russian, you will be a target for disinformation and propaganda. If you speak Kazakh and Russian, you will start questioning some messages you see in Russian. If you also speak English, you will start questioning more and more, so you will be able to think more critically about the information that you are getting. Unfortunately, many Kazakh media outlets were influenced by Russian media before the war. For many of them Russian media were the main source of information and Russian content was just translated into Kazakh.»

The Kremlin disinformation machine tiptoes around sore topics and recycles old conspiracy theories about biolabs and human organ smuggling to distract the world. But the Kremlin’s relative silence about recent events still speaks volumes. It has been a busy few weeks for the Kremlin. From the revamp of historic Soviet Luna missions to the moon, to the demise of Prigozhin, to the first post-pandemic, in-person BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, there were plenty of events that the Kremlin’s disinformation peddlers could have latched on to in order to distract the world from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

Pro-Kremlin disinformation outlets waste no time to use the burning of the Quran in Sweden and Denmark to sling accusations of religious intolerance. Portraying Russia as the protector of Islam diverges from previous disinformation attempts to vilify Muslims and push the narrative of ‘Islamisation’ of Europe… When small groups of provocateurs and far-right activists in Sweden and Denmark recently gathered to burn pages of the Quran, they were exploiting a long-standing question among democratic governments: what is protected speech, and when can it be restricted? Resolving such a dilemma requires the utmost sensitivity, fairness, and tact.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, women have been at the forefront of Russia’s anti-war movement. Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAR) has successfully rallied women across the country and declared itself a new political force. EUvsDisinfo spoke to FAR coordinator Liliia Vezhevatova about the role of feminism n times of war and how the group is working to break the “information blockade” in Russia. It’s clear that resistance won’t stop the war, but it can hasten its end by working with Russian citizens, including by providing them with information about what’s really happening.