(Moscow Times – Feb. 7, 2023) The Russian Foreign Ministry warned the new U.S. ambassador to Moscow on Tuesday that it would begin expelling her staff if the embassy continued criticizing the war in Ukraine on its social media accounts, state media reported, citing a senior Foreign Ministry source. According to the RIA Novosti news agency, the Foreign Ministry served […]
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“Bob Woodward said readers were ‘cheated’ by media’s Russiagate coverage.” “Jeff Gerth’s lengthy work for [the Columbia Journalism Review] this week covering the Donald Trump-Russia media saga delved into several key moments, including the awarding of Pulitzers to the New York Times and Washington Post for stories furthering a theory that didn’t ultimately come to fruition, as well as the […]
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“… Those who fear Putin have either fled the country or are silent. The regime has a formidable arsenal of instruments to deploy against anyone who speaks out or otherwise expresses opposition. It has used the legal system to crush any dissent, handing down Stalinist prison terms to antiwar activists. It has invented its own equivalent of yellow stars to […]
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“Thanks to Matt Taibbi’s most recent contribution to ‘The Twitter Files,’ we know the full extent of institutional corruption in the mind-boggling case of Hamilton 68.” “The media fell head over heels for a shoddy propaganda operation spearheaded by an ex-FBI agent. Twitter, internally, understood the operation to be partisan hackery but never spoke out. Organizations full of influential ex-government […]
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“NY Times, Washington Post, CNN spearheaded much of the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.” “… [L]iberal media watchdog … Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) published a wide-ranging retrospective of the media’s Russiagate coverage … examin[ing] several news organizations and their various roles throughout the Trump-Russia saga, leveling the most criticism toward The New York Times. ‘No narrative did more to shape Trump’s relations […]
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“Elon Musk says ‘shame on MSNBC’ for pushing misleading Russian bots narratives.” “… [T]he dubious source that … media and Democrats heavily relied on to peddle the false narrative of Russian bot activity on the [Twitter] platform. … [was] Hamilton 68, … spearheaded by former FBI special agent and MSNBC contributor Clint Watts[] [and] operated by the Alliance for Securing […]
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“Meta is taking Azov Regiment off its dangerous organizations list.” “Nearly a year after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, Facebook parent company Meta is tweaking its content moderation strategy over the bloody conflict. The most recent change removed the Azov Regiment, a Ukrainian far-right military group, from … [Meta’s] list of dangerous individuals and organizations. That change will allow members of […]
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“… Twitter documents … have exposed another Schiff falsehood. As news broke that [] Nunes … submitted his then-classified memo to Congress, Twitter exploded with the hashtag ‘#ReleaseTheMemo.’ [] Schiff … joined … Feinstein to publicly claim this hashtag was driven by ‘Russian bots and trolls’ … to ‘manipulate public opinion,’ ‘influence congressional action’ and ‘undermine … Mueller’s investigation’ into […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Simon Saradzhyan – Dec. 15, 2022) Simon Saradzhyan is the founding director of Russia Matters. Is Russia running out of precision munitions, such as missiles, in its war against Ukraine? That is the question I posed to some of my professional acquaintances and myself last month, hoping some of us would come up with an […]
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“Zelensky’s success as a wartime leader has relied on the fact that courage is contagious. It spread through Ukraine’s political leadership in the first days of the invasion, as everyone realized the President had stuck around. … During his childhood, Zelensky’s grandmother would talk about the time when Soviet soldiers came to confiscate the food grown in Ukraine, its vast […]
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“The Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent has gone from being focused on particular targets to broadly criminalizing any criticism of the government or its war – and it is casting a pall over Russian society.” “… Mikhail Lobanov, a local political activist in the Moscow suburb of Ramenki, put a little sign on his balcony that said ‘No War.’ … [O]ne […]
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(Moscow Times – Dec. 6, 2022) Latvia said Tuesday that it is revoking the independent Russian television channel Dozhd’s broadcasting license, citing “threats to national security and social order” following a series of violations related to the channel’s coverage of the war in Ukraine. “Dozhd TV will disappear from the airwaves on Thursday, Dec. 8,” tweeted Ivars Abolins, chairman of […]
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“An argument on Russian state television is a ‘good sign’ that the country’s leadership is cracking, according to [] former U.S. [A]mbassador [McFaul]. Russia [reportedly] has threatened to nationalize assets of Western companies … pull[ing] resources from the country following its [Ukraine] invasion …. Hundreds of companies have already left Russia after expressing dissatisfaction with the war … [I]f the […]
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“The Kremlin’s intensive use of lies and conspiracy theories to defend its invasion of Ukraine has once again dramatized the need for smart policies to counter disinformation. …Perhaps it’s time we learned something from Eastern Europe’s online armies of nongovernment activists — many of them volunteers. They possess authenticity and expertise that outside governments cannot match. … Volunteer activists fight […]
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“… Vladimir Solovyov started his radio show Full Contact (Polny Contakt) … Tuesday … saying, ‘Happy interference in the U.S. elections day.’ … [A]nother Putin ally, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who founded the Wagner mercenary group … fighting in Ukraine, said Russia … previously interfered in U.S. elections ‘carefully’ and ‘surgically,’ …. Elizabeth Van Wie Davis, author of Shadow Warfare: Cyberwar Policy […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, Oct. 23, 2022) Almost everything in Russia has changed since February 24 when Moscow began its expanded invasion of Ukraine, but one thing has not, the editors of Nezavisimaya gazeta say, and that is Putin’s confidence that he is doing everything right and the overwhelming support he has from the population in […]
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“… [O]ne of the invasion’s central lessons had to do with something I had witnessed over the preceding two decades: what happens when a government is slowly warped by its own propaganda. … Russian diplomats were made to confront Washington and defend the country’s meddling abroad with lies and non sequiturs. … embrac[ing] bombastic rhetoric and … uncritically parrot … […]
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(PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo – Peter Rutland – Oct. 17, 2022) Peter Rutland is Professor of Government at Wesleyan University. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a blatant violation of international law and strikes at the core principles of the UN. This has been widely accepted by political elites and the public at large in the United States and across Europe. […]
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From: A. D. Nakhimovsky To: davidjohnson@starpower.net Subject: Re: 2022-#202-Johnson’s Russia List You write: “DJ: The obvious emotional investment that most Western journalists, “experts”, and academics have in Ukraine has consequences.” Well, give me a credible report of Ukrainian soldiers occupying a Russian village, looting the homes, torturing some men and raping some women, and that village will get a lot […]
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“… Accounts linked to Russian state-controlled media have used [a] new method to spread dozens of videos in 18 different languages, all without leaving telltale signs that would give away the source, [according to] researchers at Nisos, a U.S.-based intelligence firm that tracks disinformation and other cyber threats …. The videos push Kremlin conspiracy theories blaming Ukraine for civilian casualties […]
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“Complaints about the U.S. military’s influence operations using Facebook and Twitter have raised concern in the White House and federal agencies.” “The Pentagon has ordered a sweeping audit of how it conducts clandestine information warfare after major social media companies identified and took offline fake accounts suspected of being run by the U.S. military …. [T]he White House and some […]
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“Having radicalized Russian ultra-patriots with imperialist slogans and actions, the Kremlin now risks its most vitriolic supporters turning against it.” “… Active Russian supporters of the war … blame their country’s military leadership …. demanding … Putin take decisive action … even questioning how serious his intentions in Ukraine really are. … [Invading] Ukraine, Putin won over … ultra-patriots and […]
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“… [With] Russian forces … in a desperate battle to hold … the meagre gains … made … since … Putin launched the invasion, the Kremlin’s propaganda machine is continuing its attempt to indoctrinate the Russian people … [into believing that] Moscow is vanquishing its foes. … [S]tate-controlled news channels … pump out a Panglossian view of the Ukrainian conflict […]
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“… For all the high-tech weaponry the West has delivered, psychological war against Russia remains a key opportunity for the United States. Historically, such an approach focused on selling Russians on the American dream. … a relic of the Cold War, ill-suited to present-day Russia. Instead of pitching … Levi’s and Hollywood, U.S. information operations should use Russian nationalism to […]
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“Driven by deep anger at Russia and the need to rally support at home and abroad, Ukraine is regularly goading its much more powerful antagonist.” “… Ukraine has delivered strikes into the heart of Russian strongholds once considered untouchable, including … Crimea …. [L]est their actions go unnoticed, the Ukrainian government[] … post[ed] a flurry of taunting one-liners that mocked […]
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“… Dugina’s death rocked … Russian TV anchors, journalists and other commentators … serv[ing] up propaganda justifying … Putin’s invasion …. The killing immediately heightened a sense of vulnerability among Russia’s most elite and visible promoters of the war in Ukraine, who now realize that they might be targets and that the government is potentially unable to protect them. … […]
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“News outlets forced to close since Russia invaded Ukraine are soldiering on in exile.” “… [Following] Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin adopted legislation punishing the dissemination of false information about [Russian military activities] with up to 15 years in prison. [The] Kremlin … said … the law was needed because of ‘the absolutely unprecedented information war … against our […]
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(Moscow Times – Anastasia Tenisheva – June 27, 2022) “No war” and “They are lying to you” were not messages Russian viewers expected to see during a news bulletin on state-run television. But that was exactly what happened when producer Marina Ovsyannikova stormed a live broadcast waving an anti-war poster shortly after Russia’s attack on Ukraine. “The atmosphere was terrible […]
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(Moscow Times – June 7, 2022) Moscow has threatened to strip the accreditations of U.S. journalists in Russia in response to the treatment of Russian reporters in the United States, Reuters reported Monday, citing unnamed sources with direct knowledge of the meeting. “If they don’t normalize the work of Russian media on U.S. territory, there will be forceful measures as […]
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(Moscow Times – Alexandra Vladimirova – April 29, 2022) Two days after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a group of hackers managed to get access to several Russian state-owned television channels and broadcast anti-war videos. But the attack ended after a few minutes and regular programming resumed. This type of fleeting hacking operation has been repeated many times […]
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“… Ukraine has become the most vivid example yet of how social media are changing the way that war is chronicled, experienced and understood, and how that, in turn, can change the course of a war itself. … Online chatter can spur rapid shifts in public opinion …. Posts on social networks have become a crucial source of information for […]
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“Russian media are imploding, with most independent outlets shut by the government and state-run outfits hit by mass resignations as reporters face up to the reality of their jobs.” “Editor’s note: This article was edited in order to conform with Russian legislation criminalizing references to Russia’s current action in Ukraine as anything other than a ‘special military operation.’ Russian troops […]
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“… Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine … dream[ing] of restoring the glory of the Russian empire. … [but] ended up restoring the terror of Josef Stalin. … [H]e has unleashed the most violent act of unprovoked aggression in Europe since 1939 … [and] … is turning himself into … a 21st-century Stalin [at home], resorting as never before to […]
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Russian journalists who have quit their jobs in state media often indicated that they did it as a protest against the invasion of Ukraine or out of fear that they would be sent to the war zone […]
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“We all stand for freedom of speech, but it cannot be abused to spread war propaganda” […]
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“The options presented include disrupting the internet across Russia, shutting off power and stopping trains in their tracks.” “… Biden [reportedly] has been presented … options … to carry out massive cyberattacks … to disrupt Russia’s ability to sustain … military operations in Ukraine …. U.S. intelligence and military cyber warriors are proposing the use of American cyberweapons on a […]
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(U.S. Department of State – Feb. 3, 2022 – state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-february-3-2022/) NED PRICE, DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON MR PRICE: Good afternoon. We have previously noted our strong concerns regarding Russian disinformation and the likelihood that Moscow might create – seek to create a false flag operation to initiate military activity. Now, we can say that the United States has information that Russia is […]
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U.S. Department of State: Fact Sheet: Office of the Spokesperson …. Below are examples of Russian lies about the current crisis and its causes – and the truth […]
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Russian state-funded and state-directed media outlets RT and Sputnik are critical elements in Russia’s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem […]
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(Paul Goble – Dec. 12, 2021) I am happy to report that my health situation has stabilized sufficiently to allow me to prepare Windows on Eurasia again. I have managed to keep up my daily surveys of URLs since mid-October but only more recently have been able to prepare my own posts on them. Because I was not certain how […]
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Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper, accepted the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo
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“Pressure grows on foreign social media platforms after state-run group’s takeover of Russia’s Facebook.” “The takeover … of VKontakte … by companies tied to … Gazprom has the feel of a final act in a long saga of creeping state control over the company. … [T]he Facebook lookalike’s trajectory has mirrored … the Russian internet … from the freewheeling Ru-net […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Simon Saradzhyan – Nov. 23, 2021) Simon Saradzhyan is the founding director of the Russia Matters Project. Evidence of recently resumed movements of Russian troops in the vicinity of Russia’s border with Ukraine (as well as farther afield) have reignited the debate about Kremlin intentions to order another military intervention on its neighbor’s territory, with […]
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The staff at Ukraine’s English-language Kyiv Post announced efforts to relaunch as an “independent” publication days after its owner shuttered it amid a dispute over editorial independence […]
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“‘… you have to remember how every single ruble ended up in your account.’ If a report is deemed erroneous, a designated “foreign agent” could face a fine of up to 300,000 rubles ($4,250) or a prison term from two to five years […]
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[Dmitry Muratov,] editor-in-chief of one of Russia’s leading independent newspapers, Novaya Gazeta, has won the Nobel Peace Prize. … for the paper’s reporting on human rights, freedom of speech and other politically sensitive topics […]
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In a separate development, tens of thousands of pro-government bloggers participated in a coordinated campaign to spread positive reports about the course of the parliamentary elections […]
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Nationwide statisticians have estimated that half of the official votes received by United Russia in the election could have been falsified [. ..]
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Independent data scientists and analysts said that half of all the votes attributed to United Russia in the official results were probably fake — a level of falsification previously unseen in Russian parliamentary elections [. ..]
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Critics have warned that the system’s lack of transparency and voter-verification safeguards could open the way for vote manipulation […]
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