This sensational headline recently appeared on Ukraina.ru, a Russian website well-known for spreading disinformation about Ukraine, like reported by euvsdisinfo.eu.

The claim, like much of the “news” published on Ukraina.ru, is entirely bogus.

As Ukraine’s StopFake reports, as many as 16 schools in the Ukrainian capital currently offer Russian-language curriculums.

Two other outlets, Novorossia.Inform and Novostnoe Agenstvo Kharkov, published the false claim. All three stories quote Ukraine’s education ministry, with Ukraina.ru referring to official figures published by the television channel 112 Ukraina.

A closer look at the channel’s website, however, shows that the allegedly official statistics are in fact a simple Excel sheet without any stamp, link, or other indication of its source.

The disinformation story was released after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution on January 23 calling for greater protection of minority languages across all its member states.

They claim to have tricked the US Ambassador to the United Nations, presenting themselves as Poland’s Prime Minister. They have allegedly talked to the US Energy Secretary, claiming to be the Prime Minister of Ukraine. They seem to have made Spain’s Defence Minister believe she was talking to her Latvian counterpart. Even singer Elton John has apparently been targeted by the two pranksters, who have become celebrities in their home country, Russia, under their aliases, Vovan and Lexus, like reported by euvsdisinfo.eu.

But is what they do just entertainment, or are they also practising a form of propaganda? The fact that their phone calls receive frequent and substantial coverage by official Kremlin propaganda outlets like Sputnik, suggests that Russia’s authorities aren’t unhappy with their targeting of international politicians and decision makers.

Deniable propaganda

The two telephone pranksters are traditionally presented as comedians, and their recorded conversations as a form of political satire. The framing of their activities as entertainment can be seen as a way to safeguard their activity against serious criticism; for example, against questions about connections to government agencies, and whether such relationships are the reason why what they do is not only tolerated by the authorities, but communicated uncritically by the government’s own media. The use of satire relates the telephone pranksters to another case of apparently humoristic entertainment, the popular television comedy show KVN, which has been criticised for containing propaganda messages and for targeting its writers with censorship.

Importantly, the Russian pranksters don’t pass one of the most fundamental tests of telling what qualifies as propaganda or not. And in this one-sidedness they share a feature with official Kremlin propaganda outlets, such as RT (Russia Today). That test is that they will never target anyone from the political establishment in Russia. Nobody from the establishment has ever received a phone call from them. As the pranksters told The Guardian: “We wouldn’t prank Putin. We don’t want to harm our country. We don’t want unrest here; we don’t want to do anything that would help the enemies of Russia.”

When Shakespeare wrote the famous words “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, he pointed to the fact that what matters is what something is, not what it is called, like reported by euvsdisinfo.eu.

This week in pro-Kremlin disinformation, we noticed ample usage of the term “war”. First off, the ban on Russian athletes in the upcoming Olympics was yet again described as a war on Russia. In fact, it was the systematic state sponsored doping program in Russia that made the IOC decide to suspend certain Russian athletes. Russian athletes not convicted of doping will be allowed to compete under the Olympic flag. Hardly a war, then.

Furthermore, in a Hungarian outlet, it was stated that immigrants are fighting a war against authorities in Sweden, and that the Swedish Prime Minister wants to use the military against immigrants in the country in order to restore order. The Swedish Prime Minister did indeed suggest the use of the military, but not in the context of immigrants, but to end violence between criminal gangs.

What about Ukraine? There is a war going on there, isn’t there? Most definitely, but what kind of war is it? Is it a civil war, i.e fought without foreign involvement? Is it a war that has no links to Russia? Is it Ukraine that started a war against Russia?

All were suggested by pro-Kremlin disinformation this week. Well, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has concluded that the situation within the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol amounts to an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. This international armed conflict began at the latest on 26 February when the Russian Federation deployed members of its armed forces to gain control over parts of the Ukrainian territory without the consent of the Ukrainian Government. It is safe to say that this is a war being fought on the territory of Ukraine, not in Russia.

On 18 January, a disinformation attack hit European and US diplomats, alongside Russian human rights defenders, in a programme aired by state-controlled NTV, like reported by euvsdisinfo.eu. The reporting made systematic use of incorrect and misleading information. NTV conducted covert operations in order to obtain video and audio recordings and exposed named individuals at closed meetings as well as in private, in some cases even in intimate situations. The production, whose overall message was to portray Russian human rights defenders as traitors who help terrorist groups, while being under the control of Western governments, is a typical example of the way media is abused by the Russian authorities to manipulate public opinion.

Misleading claims and secret recordings

At an early point in the programme, two Russian human rights defenders are ambushed by a journalist and a cameraman while leaving a foreign embassy building in Moscow. This is then linked to secretly obtained footage, allegedly showing a dinner meeting held between Russian human rights defenders and Western diplomats and politicians. However, NTV fails to produce evidence that these two events are interlinked. Nothing proves that the two events happened at the same day, or that even the topic discussed at the two meetings is in any way the same.

In another sequence, a named young man from Irkutsk in Siberia is also ambushed by an NTV crew and described as working for foreign powers. He answers that he has not received funding from abroad and only depends on his own money. To prove the young man wrong, documents allegedly proving foreign funding are then shown. However, NTV fails to make it clear if the application, to which it has seemingly had access, was ever accepted and if the young man has actually received funding from the source, where he allegedly applied for funding.

NTV also highlights the case of a Russian human rights defender who, at the point the programme was broadcast, was charged with producing child pornography. Recordings of diplomats from Western diplomatic representations in Russia, who had come to the human rights defender’s home town to follow what they suspected to be a politically motivated case, are shown with use of covertly obtained video footage. However, NTV fails to mention that at the point of the broadcast, the most recent expert opinion requested by the Russian state prosecutor did not qualify the photos in the human rights defender’s case as child pornography. Indeed, the activist was released from custody on 27 January, shortly after the production was aired, which confirms that the allegations made by NTV were not solid and that the foreign diplomats could indeed have been right in their suspicion of a political motivation behind the charges.

Apparently with the aim to compromise them in the eyes of the Russian public, NTV also included secretly obtained video and audio recordings, allegedly showing two men making love, one of whom is an academic, who has repeatedly spoken on topics relevant to human rights. The broadcast included similar covertly obtained footage of a female human rights defender allegedly making love to a male inmate at a Russian prison during a visit.

Media attacks on foreign diplomats and NGOs unhindered by the Kremlin

On the top of the above examples of disinformation and lack of journalistic integrity, the commentary surrounding the recordings adds a tone of conspiracy, suspicion and distrust in those who defend human rights, as well as in foreign diplomats who represent their governments in Russia. The practice of using secretly recorded surveillance and disinformation targeting foreign diplomats is not new, and it remains unhindered by the Russian authorities.

It is also noteworthy that the production focused specifically on activists from the important Russian human rights NGO Memorial while being aired just one day after the latest in a wave of attacks on Memorial in the North Caucasus.

NTV is Gazprom’s TV station

NTV is Russia’s third most watched TV channel, and is owned by Gazprom Media, a subsidiary of Gazprom, which is the state-controlled successor to the former Soviet Ministry of Gas Industry, and today a major supplier of gas to the international market, including the EU. In this way, the Kremlin controls NTV via Gazprom, even if NTV is not formally a government outlet.

NTV has built up a problematic reputation for its production of pseudo-documentaries with systematic use of covert recordings, misleading information, and intrusion into closed meetings to throw negative light on Russian civil society, including slander attacks on political activists from the opposition.

NTV has a network of correspondents accredited to report from outside Russia, including, for example, in Brussels at the EU institutions.

Terrorism and “fake news” are among the security threats the world faces today, and governments need to find solutions that go beyond having military defences, said Second Minister for Defence Ong Ye Kung on Monday (Jan 29), like reported by channelnewsasia.com.

He was speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue Sherpa Meeting, which sets the agenda for June’s Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual security forum bringing together defence ministers and military chiefs from Asia Pacific countries.

Mr Ong laid out four security challenges: Developments in the Korean Peninsula, terrorism, deliberate online falsehoods and the retreat of globalisation.

Calling the issue of terrorism one of the region’s “most serious preoccupations”, the minister highlighted the siege of Marawi by Islamic State-linked militants as an example of a more deep-rooted problem.

“The Marawi siege was symptomatic of more fundamental issues that continue to persist – the increasing prevalence of a strand of exclusive and austere Islam that rejects the modern world as we know it, the stratification of societies along racial and religious lines, and religious intolerance which has facilitated the spread of radical ideology,” said Mr Ong.

He also cautioned that terror groups will operate across national borders with “increasing coordination and sophistication”, and continue to spread extremist ideas online.

“Groups have been using more sophisticated technology like encrypted communication platforms and cryptocurrencies to evade detection,” Mr Ong added.

DELIBERATE ONLINE FALSEHOODS

On the issue of deliberate online falsehoods, Mr Ong noted that the problem is increasingly undermining social fabric and national unity.

“Propaganda has never been this powerful, and automated. The only difference is that it is now used, including by foreign players, against national institutions,” he said, adding that countries are recognising that there is a need to come up with legislation and safeguards in the short term to combat “fake news”.

For instance, France is looking to grant judges emergency powers to remove or block content deemed to be ‘”fake news” during sensitive periods such as elections.

In Singapore, a Select Committee has been set up to look into the problem of deliberate online falsehoods and recommend strategies to deal with it.

“Today, media as we know has been hijacked by something much more unpredictable and volatile. The fundamental condition for democracy has been weakened.

“Society will fight back, to restore our democratic institutions. This will be done through regulation, a likely drastic reconfiguration of the media industry, and an evolution of societies to become more discerning of what’s real and what’s false and malicious,” said Mr Ong.

“This is not conventional warfare, but a battle within all our societies. But it has important implications for global stability, as dysfunctional domestic politics created by misinformation and falsehoods, means messy external relations too.”

GOING BEYONG TRADITIONAL MILITARY DEFENCES

To deal with the key security threats he highlighted, Mr Ong said nations have to respond on both the domestic and regional front.

This means going beyond traditional military defences and investing in new capabilities such as cyber security as well as participating in economic integration and free trade initiatives.

Mr Ong also spoke about the need for ASEAN to remain relevant and constructive in contributing to global peace and stability. Singapore is chairing the regional bloc this year.

“ASEAN’s contribution is not in trying to be a regional power, but by maintaining its neutrality and centrality, to keep the regional security architecture open and inclusive, and providing a natural platform for major powers to engage each other,” said Mr Ong.

He added that where it matters, ASEAN will take a common stance such as in the joint support for the Philippines in its battle against terrorists in Marawi.

Almost five years ago on 18 August 2013, a video in Russian named “Horror. Legalisation of incest in Europe” was published on YouTube. It is a story that indeed resembles a horror movie: slowly, it tells us with a threatening voice, European countries and especially Scandinavia, are moving towards legalising incest and making even “incestophobia” punishable, like reported by euvsdisinfo.eu.

In fact, incest is prohibited in the EU countries.

Now, the video has been shared over 8 600 times on Facebook. It got a whole new life and audience for its disinforming messages, when it was posted on Facebook in November last year, and the fact that many commentators see it as a propagandistic piece doesn’t prevent others from sharing it.

The story is scraped together from screenshots of articles with headlines that actually tell the opposite of the disinformation claims – like “Icelandic app aims to prevent incest” – or video footage from police cracking down protests that have no connection whatsoever with the topic.

Delivering a warning

The video stuns viewers with twisted figures like  “38 500 children that have been taken against their will and handed over to same-sex families in Germany”. We have seen before how exactly the same disinformation message made its way to Georgia. And this is not surprising: if the Youtube video is the oldest version of the story, the message has been online for almost five years, which is more than enough for an disinformation message to put down roots. The message is clear: warning that following the path of supporting democratic values will inevitably lead to moral decay and catastrophe. And it is one of the favourites of the pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign.

But if effectively debunked, attempts to use social media to disinform the public can have a much shorter life cycle. This week, the Dnipropetrovsk police department in Ukraine refuted the disinformation that a Ukrainian policeman published a Facebook profile photo with a Nazi uniform. In fact, the person has never worked in the police.

Distorting international law

The complexity of international law makes it one of the easiest sources to create pro-Kremlin disinformation. So this week Russia’s foreign minister was reported stating that Russia has not violated the Budapest Memorandum. Argumentation: Russia has neither used nor threatened to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine.

Sounds convincing? Actually, the Budapest Memorandum states that “The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the CSCE [Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe] Final Act, to respect the Independence and Sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine” – which Russiaclearly has violated by annexation of Crimea.

Secondly, Russia’s president has already confirmed that Russia was ready to put its nuclear weapons into a state of combat readiness during tensions over the crisis in Ukraine and Crimea.

Legal subjectivity

Even Western outlets may end up confusing the audience with reports on Crimea. This week, a Euronews article told how the Russian army trains children in Crimea on how to plant and defuse landmines as part of army’s “recruitment drive”. The article failed to explain the background of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, or to tell that Russia supports separatists in the war in Ukraine. Though the version of the article now on the website does concede that “Crimea, seen as a geopolitical stronghold for Moscow, was annexed from Ukraine in 2014” it also described how the European Union and US were prompted to impose “sanctions against Russia over the “illegal” move.” We recall that The United Nations General Assembly Resolution clearly says that Russia’s actions in the peninsula as well as the referendum held in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea violate international law.

“Most people know about, but few are willing to condemn, the strict taboo in the media, of criticizing Jews as a group, using that term. One cannot even criticize a small subsection of Jews, a miniscule percentage of the Jewish population, even when they richly deserve it”, like reported by euvsdisinfo.eu.

This, and a whole series of similarly anti-Semitic statements, was part of an editorial published on Monday in Moscow by the pro-Kremlin English language outlet, Russia Insider. The article, which ran under the headline “It’s Time to Drop the Jew Taboo,” attracted a wave of negative attention among observers of Russian media. How does it inscribe itself in the wider pro-Kremlin propaganda picture?

What is Russia Insider?

Russia Insider is a private, Moscow-based English language online media outlet, in which Western authors and commentators appear with criticism of Western governments and praise of the Kremlin. It presents itself as crowd-funded and run by a group of Western expats living in Russia who share a wish to make the Russian perspective on different issues available to audiences outside Russia. The author of the anti-Semitic piece is the outlet’s editor-in-chief, an American based in Moscow who appears as a commentator on RT (Russia Today). In a leak analysed by academic Anton Shekhovtsov, author of the book Russia and the Western Far Right, it is claimed that the outlet could be sponsored by the Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, who holds strongly nationalist views, allegedly sponsors Russia-backed separatists in Eastern Ukraine, and owns Russia’s largest nationalist media outlet, Tsargrad TV.

The Church and anti-Semitism in Russia

The Russian Orthodox Church is considered by many a strong source of nationalist sentiment in modern Russia; observers have seen the Church as central in building up an anti-Semitic narrative around the 100^th anniversary of the October Revolution and the upcoming 100^th anniversary of the execution of Russia’s last Imperial family. But also leading Russian politicians have publicly expressed anti-Semitic views. Former talk show host, now Duma Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy, was on the record with anti-Semitic statements a year ago. Similarly, news host and Secretary of the Russian Civic Chamber, Valery Fadeev, voiced anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, targeting French President Emmanuel Macron and his election campaign.

Endorsed by RT

Even if the anti-Semitic component in the propaganda is not initiated from the top of Russian authorities, but rather has its roots in some religious and other nationalist conservative circles, it is clearly tolerated by a government that normally does not shy away from trying to control the country’s information environment. Similarly, the systematic endorsement of the editor of an anti-Semitic outlet on the government’s international channel, RT, suggests that there is hardly more than an arm’s length between the two.

Remember the story by Hans Christian Andersen of the emperor with no clothes? He is tricked into paying large sums of money for clothes supposedly woven of the finest fabrics, which can only be seen by the most intelligent people. But in reality he is wearing nothing – a fact which no one dares acknowledge until it is finally pointed out by a little boy as he parades the streets, like reported by euvsdisinfo.eu.

The same goes for disinformation. If you don’t dare point out that it is disinformation, people keep pretending. And as we could read earlier this week, disinformation outlets do not even themselves try to keep up appearances; on the contrary, they are quite open about the nature of their activities.

This last week there have been many repetitions of recurring disinformation narratives in the pro-Kremlin disinformation wardrobe. So we feel the need to point out the obvious, again.

The never ending moral decay of the West

In the Georgian disinformation space, the moral decay of the West was supposedly illustrated by a new Canadian law that made criticising gender theory a criminal offence. In reality, the new law is an amendment to the Canadian Human Rights Act, which adds gender identity and gender expression to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination.

On Russian state TV, NATO was claimed to be on par with Daesh when it comes to terrorism. And the US was accused of being one of the warring sides in Ukraine. We have debunked such claims countless times.

A new US report was claimed on Russian state TV to be Russophobia, another common excuse used by pro-Kremlin disinformation when Russia is called out or criticised.

And in another Georgian disinformation outlet, it was claimed that Europe had recognised incest as a norm. Actually, protection and promotion of the rights of the child is one of the objectives of the European Union. All policies and actions with an impact on children must be designed, implemented and monitored in line with the best interests of the child.

The end of Ukraine, is it?

Judging by the pro-Kremlin disinformation stories about Ukraine, you would wonder if the country will make it through the week. Ukraine was described as a wasteland, with a plummeting population due to lack of health care; and as a country plagued by a Hepatitis A epidemic.

But, it is not quite as bad as it sounds. According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Health, there are sporadic cases of the disease in Ukraine, but there is most certainly no epidemic. And as pointed out many times before, disinformation about Ukraine has been at the heart of the pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign at least since the start of the protests at Maidan.

And pro-Kremlin outlets again portrayed Russia as the peacekeeper in the world and a country that adheres to international law, contradicting the facts of its illegal annexation of Crimea in clear violation of international law, and involvement in the conflict in the East of Ukraine.

When it comes to disinformation, the emperor has no clothes.

A 206-page report published by the U.S. Senate accuses the Kremlin of waging a “relentless assault” on democracy in Europe and the United States, like reported by euvsdisinfo.eu.

Speaking at the report’s public release, Senator Ben Cardin said Russia had developed “a formidable set of tools to exert influence abroad.”

“We knew after the 2016 elections that we were vulnerable, but the 2016 elections were just a small part of Russia’s overall design,” he said.

The report describes the Kremlin’s “asymmetrical arsenal” as including “a lethal blend of conventional military assaults, assassinations, disinformation campaigns, cyberattacks.”

The document also denounces the repression of critics inside Russia.

The report is the first detailed study of Russia’s destabilisation activities since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, during which thousands of politically charged ads were published on fake Facebook accounts operated from Russia.

Beginning page 141, you can read what the senators write about East StratCom Task Force and its EUvsDisinfo campaign, and other European and NATO defences.

As a new year commences, the last year is summed up and predictions for the future are being made by security services and national authorities. During the last couple of years we have seen an increased awareness of and concern about the threat of disinformation and influence operations, like reported by euvsdisinfo.eu.

In December 2016 it was Sweden, through the Head of the Swedish Military Intelligence and Security Service, that highlighted Russia as the main source of cyberattacks and influence operations. Shortly before that, the head of the German domestic intelligence agency went public about disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks directed from Russia.

In December 2017, the Danish defence intelligence service Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste (FE) presented its risk assessment, containing the main threats to Denmark in their view. The top three risk areas were listed as cyberattacks, Russia and terrorism – in that order. The report points out that Russia uses influence campaigns to leverage internal political affairs in Western countries in order to create the best possible prerequisites for Russia to reach its foreign policy goals; and that it therefore remains a significant security policy challenge for the West and for Denmark.

However, Russia was also highlighted as a main threat to Denmark as a cyber actor, as the report points out that Russia remains a leading and highly active player in the cyber area. As stated in the report, the Russian state has a comprehensive capacity to perform cyber spying and destructive cyberattacks that can support Russia’s strategic and security policy interests as well as the country’s military operations. Russia uses significant efforts to promote its interests in the West, and also uses cyberattacks this purpose.

Furthermore, the British Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament published its 122-page annual report last month. The report mentions terrorism, the cyber threat and hostile state activities among other threats. Russia is highlighted as a threat both in its cyber capacity and in a wider range of influence operations, as it has been for the last decade.

A remarkable detail in the report, as described by Bellingcat, is the fact that the report reveals how a British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) source describes that “we know beyond any reasonable doubt that the Russian military supplied and subsequently recovered the missile launcher [after] the shooting down of MH-17.” Although evidence suggesting this has been presented, Western governments have so far been reluctant to name the Russian military as the providers of the weapon used to shoot down the civilian flight MH17.

For further reading on the MH17 tragedy, see Bellingcat , the Joint Investigation Team and our reporting on the issue.

For further reading concerning assessments and warnings from Governments and state agencies, have a look at our reading list under the section Warnings and official reactions.