The Kremlin Who Cried, ‘West!’

Kremlin’s disinformation outlets drum up a siege mentality in Russia, spread false fears of a looming NATO invasion from Ukraine, accuse the West of stealing Russia’s frozen assets to fight ‘proxy’ wars, and meddle in Georgia to fuel contention around the passing of the ‘transparency law’.

By EUvsDisinfo | May 30, 2024 —

The Kremlin’s disinformation peddlers have long since tried to build the perception of Russia being allegedly under siege by malicious external forces, usually of Anglo-Saxon origins. This has been one of the red threads weaving through the Kremlin’s disinformation about Russia’s war against Ukraine. Incidentally, in a pendulum-like motion, as the support for Ukraine swells, so does the volume of the pro-Kremlin voices accusing the West of aggression against Russia and demonstratively drawing meaningless lines in the sand, based on thinly veiled threats of a nuclear holocaust.

DR_2024-0530_EUvsD_DR03_30_final — **The Kremlin who cried, ‘West!’ —** EUvsDISINFO

This week was no exception as the Kremlin unleashed a fresh barrage of lies and accusations about Western troops in Ukraine, regurgitated false alarmist claims about ‘Western interference’ in Georgia, and complained about EU plans to put frozen Russian oligarch money to good use.

Enemy at the gates

Since French President Emmanuel Macron publicly entertained the possibility of deploying troops to Ukraine, the pro-Kremlin disinformation ecosystem has been abuzz with the topic. Most prominently, commentators seemingly want to vindicate the long-running pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that the West is using Ukraine to fight a proxy war against Russia.

While debate in the West is merely theoretical at this moment, for pro-Kremlin outlets, the enemy is already at the gates. Some outlets claim that French troops are already on the frontlines in Ukraine, others that NATO is actively preparing to launch a war against Russia, and some even claim that Russia has already destroyed secret Western bases in Ukraine.

Consistently inconsistent

The Kremlin always likes to have its disinformation cake and eat it too. So, when Western leaders started announcing that Ukrainian strikes inside Russia should be allowed, the Kremlin’s disinformation launderers quickly switched from decrying a ‘Western proxy war’ to accusing Ukraine of trying to provoke a direct clash between NATO and Russia. Therefore, in the Kremlin’s depiction of Ukraine’s relationship with the West, sometimes the dog wags the tail, and sometimes it is the other way around. Whatever seems to fit pro-Kremlin disinformation needs at any given time.

‘Second front’ in Georgia

This pro-Kremlin mirror projection of accusing the West of aggression and belligerence is also currently playing out in Georgia. Now that the Georgian Parliament has overridden the will of its people as well as a presidential veto and passed the notorious ‘transparency law’, numerous pro-Kremlin voices in Georgia are actively defending the backsliding move by pushing the pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that the West wants to use Georgia to open a ‘second front’ against Russia.

These accusations of alleged Western interference and devious warmongering designs to use Georgia to fight Russia have followed the controversial law since its inception in 2023. Such designs may be merely the delusions of paranoid conspiracy theorists, but pro-Kremlin disinformation agents have pushed them to discredit and incapacitate civil society in Georgia as it has been the bulwark safeguarding the country’s path toward the EU until now.

To top it off, some pro-Kremlin outlets are even openly gleeful, embracing the Russian imperial doctrine of ‘spheres of influence’, and celebrating the passing of the ‘transparency law’ as Georgia’s pivot away from the West and toward Russia.

Thieves, thieves!

Meanwhile, on the home front, the ground was also fertile for pushing the Kremlin’s all-time favourite accusations of the evil West trying to destroy godly Russia. This time it is personal. The West is coming after the frozen assets of Russian oligarchs, so the Kremlin unleashed lofty accusations that the EU and the G7 are trying to steal hard-earned Russian money and issued threats of ‘countermeasures’. Some pro-Kremlin outlets focused on conjuring potentially devastating consequences for the West, while others used the plan to use the revenue from Russian’s frozen assets as ‘proof’ that the West is waging a hybrid war against Russia.

It is progress, not taxes

Finally, drumming up all the imaginary threats and boogeymen allegedly surrounding Russia from all sides provided a much-needed distraction from a tax hike in Russia. Apologies, not ‘tax-hike’, as in pro-Kremlin parlance. We should say, a ‘planned adjustment of the progressive scales’. Or, ‘improvement of the existing system’. Or, ‘lowering the income threshold’. At least that is how it is framed for Russian taxpayers footing the bill for Russia’s war against Ukraine. If we are to believe the Kremlin, this is not an alarming sign of rapidly emptying coffers, but rather an indication of progress. Don’t be deceived.

Also blinking red on EUvsDisinfo’s radar:

The Kremlin just loves a good conspiracy theory. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has regularly appeared in the Kremlin’s conspiracy theory crosshairs. Now, pro-Kremlin mouthpieces claim that the WHO has called on governments to ban agriculture. This disinformation story has been perpetuated since at least December 2023, when the WHO published materials on nutrition and emergent topics discussed during the COP28. It grossly misrepresents WHO findings to push pro-Kremlin conspiracy theories about a ‘globalist plot’ that allegedly wants to reduce the global population. In reality, the WHO simply called for moving towards healthier and more plant-based diets, not ban agriculture.
Since the Swiss announcement to hold a peace summit on a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, the pro-Kremlin disinformation machine has been spinning in its highest gear to dismiss and discredit the event. The latest addition to this derisive campaign claims that the peace summit in Switzerland is a propaganda exercise to cover up Zelenskyy’s illegitimacy. This disinformation attempt mixes discrediting the peace summit with questioning the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government. Both twisting the peace narrative and deriding Zelenskyy’s legitimacy have been among prominent pro-Kremlin disinformation tactics since Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Let’s be very clear – President Zelenskyy’s mandate has not ended. The Ukrainian Constitution is straightforward: the President of Ukraine exercises his powers until the assumption of office by the newly-elected President. The continuity of government institutions is one of the key principles of the Constitution. Most observers consider regular elections unfeasible as there are millions of refugees abroad, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians serving on the frontlines, and a significant part of the Ukrainian population living under Russian occupation. Ukraine also wants to avoid the likelihood that many civilians would die or get injured as a consequence of Russian missiles, glided bombs, drones and shells, which would likely target election related events and infrastructure, kill and maim civilians. And the Kremlin would then cynically blame Ukraine as it often does, for example this week by attacking a marked place in Kharkiv for construction material.
Well in line with the Kremlin’s affinity for pointing fingers and patterns of crying wolf, pro-Kremlin disinformation outlets once again turned their gaze toward the West and falsely claimed that the EU – Moldova security and defence deal may indicate preparations for war against Russia. These claims seek to misrepresent the Security and Defence Partnership signed on 21 May between the EU and Moldova. The partnership is not about waging war, arming partners, or taking any other military actions, but merely provides a framework for collaboration and the exchange of information, expertise in the fields of cyber security, hybrid threats, and combating extremism.