Infoguerre

Church on fire! A false news story shows how lies and manipulation are made in the Kremlin ecosystem and spread with dramatic effect. We investigate the story.
Try to imagine your feelings if you saw your church on fire in the evening TV news. Then imagine your reaction if told that a despicable neighbour had carried out the arson attack upon the mayor’s instructions. This small but provocative question captures the desired effect most propagandists try to ignite.

The very first EEAS FIMI report gives us valuable information about the tactics, techniques, and procedures that Russia and China use to manipulate information domain and their audiences. The report sets up a common framework for countering foreign threat actors. It also provides us with a number of juicy details on threat actor behaviour. In this piece, EUvsDiSiNFO team concentrate on the pro-Kremlin ecosystem.

This first edition of the report on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference threats is informed by the work of the European External Action Service’s (EEAS) Stratcom division8 in 2022. It is the first of its kind and can be seen as a pilot project.

The Kremlin disinformation machinery continues to fabricate make-believe stories about biolabs in Ukraine and bioweapons testing, while tossing its tentacles near and far. This week it appears that Kremlin propagandists were yet again tasked by their masters’ voices to celebrate a biolabs and bioweapons theme week. We also witnessed the pro-Kremlin disinformation ecosystem targeting Ukrainian refugees in EU countries.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (in absentia) and Ales Bialiatski are on trial in Belarus as methods to suppress citizens’ civic and political engagement are becoming ever crueller. In Belarus, police brutality, abuse of the court system, and the manipulation and repression of the public space is rife, silencing individual voices. The regime is using new ‘legal’ instruments of coercion to make a grim reality even grimmer

The Kremlin’s attempts to justify the invasion of Ukraine by equating it the Nazi regime trivialise the memory of millions of victims of Nazism. According to historians from universities in Berlin and Munich, this narrative has also served as a ready-made excuse to escalate violence to World War II levels and lowered resistance to committing war crimes in Ukraine. At the same time, the imperatives of war propaganda within Russia have erased any limits for what is acceptable on Russian TV.

As Western countries commit to sending more heavy weapons to Ukraine for its legitimate self-defence (as enshrined in Article 51 of the UN charter), the Kremlin spins it as leading to ‘further escalation’, or as efforts made in vain because Ukraine’s defeat is certain. As if Russia’s invasion is the escalation that has endangered peaceful co-existence between Ukraine and Russia. The same pro-Kremlin outlets also dismissed the 10th EU sanctions package currently under discussion as having no impact on Russia and European deliberation on the issue as a sign of disunity.

In order to challenge Russia’s ongoing disinformation campaigns, the EU has strengthened its capabilities to identify and counter disinformation and deal with hybrid threats. The European External Action Service (EEAS) East StratCom Task Force has established therefore the EUvsDisinfo platform. Its mandate is to forecast, address, and respond to Russia’s disinformation campaigns affecting the European Union, its Member States, and countries in the region.

Russian State media claim looming Western invasion of Russia, Ukrainian plots to use nuclear bombs, and threats to the Orthodox faith in Ukraine. All to distract from bloody battles, atrocities, civilian deaths and the Dnipro bombing. The Kremlin’s media machine is usually not shy about showing dramatic, blood-dripping footage. Why not show this bombing and, as usual, brag in a triumphant tone about the ‘nationalists’ being hit?

From illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and ongoing military aggression against Ukraine, the Kremlin has waged a sustained disinformation campaign targeting the Russian population, Russia’s neighbour countries, the EU and beyond. EUvsDiSiNFO debunked 7 of the most prevalent and dangerous myths — and often outright lies — related to Ukraine.