The crisis in Ukraine is not yet resolved and the Information War continues. Therefore I am continually updating the Russia – Ukraine IW Bibliography at http://wp.me/p1wMhe-2hm 

One of my best sources is Dr. John Brown’s Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review.  He has a ‘news aggregator’ service and mails out a daily update which gives me invaluable updates for the entire community.  It can be found at http://publicdiplomacypressandblogreview.blogspot.com/  I spoke recently with Dr. Brown, who gave me the most precious (?) compliment.  He said “I disagree with almost everything you write, but I like your blog”.

Others are not so enamored with his blog, but he honestly has the best single source available.  What I like even more about it is that his newsletter comes to me, I subscribe to his email service.  I don’t have to hunt it down. Plus he is a heckuva nice guy and I now know, honest.

As I said in a recent blog, I like opposing opinions, as long as you are civil.

Hey.  I unfriended a good friend on Facebook today to make a point, respect must work both ways.  I made my point with a 2×4 piece of lumber and I hit her square between the eyes.  She’s a friend once again; now I believe she respects my opinion.

If you are reading this blog, I might have already contacted you about a certain term.   I believe what I was seeking is known as Lead Time aka Publication Time, professional journalism terms.  To summarize a long story, I contacted several hundred Information Operations, Public Diplomacy, Strategic Communication professionals and journalists and posed this question (Gee, it feels strange to quote myself):

I’m trying to discover what the proper term might be for this… This is somewhat of a net call, to all the smartest people I know. 

As a result I got some suggestions about cognitive studies, about information diffusion, and so on.  I realized I must be asking the question incorrectly, so I wrote this:

*argh*  How could I have miscommunicated so badly?

I’m looking for a communication study, I believe. Using the Communication aspect of Dr. Daniel Kuehl’s 3-C model.  Content, Communication, Cognitive (Correction: The “3-Cs” Dan uses are CONNECTIVITY-CONTENT-COGNITION).  I submit an idea for publication and after a certain time period it is published.  I’m looking for a study of that time period, a simple model.  I’ll deal with the brainstem later, the content of the message is being dealt with separately.  How long between me submitting a message (content) for publication and will it be published (communication time)?

In Facebook it can be seconds or minutes.  In most circumstances there are no filters, I get an idea, I put my fingers to keyboard, and voila, a message pops out on Facebook. In certain commercial and military environments, there is a filter.  This may be a boss, a leader, a marketing department, all have to approve the message before it may be published on Facebook.

On a personal blog, I get the idea, I write the message and I publish on my blog.  Minutes.  If there is a commercial blog I probably have the same approval process as the commercial or military Facebook.

For a newspaper it takes hours, probably 12.

For a magazine it probably takes weeks.

For a Journal it takes months.

End result, I can use this for planning.  If I have months to prepare, I can submit a 3,000 – 5,000 word article supporting my position to a journal months in advance. I might submit articles to a magazine weeks in advance.  To a newspaper perhaps 12 hours..   IF my intention is to create a perfect storm, I might want to get these articles to all appear at the same time, reinforcing my message. Right now it appears as if we continually shotgun out the message without planning prioritization of effort. How do we synchronize, how do we integrate, how do we prioritize?

The winning entries are “Lead Time” and “Publication Time”.   Any more suggestions?  Seriously, teach me!

Apr 10. 2014

By Rick Staggenborg, MD, Soldiers for Peace International

Respect for national sovereignty has been the basis of international law designed to prevent preemptive warfare since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 ended the 30 Years War.  The idea was to prevent wars by agreeing that empires and international alliances would not interfere with the internal affairs of any nation. The idea rejected by later Empire builders, leading to two world wars largely brought on by the British Empire’s machinations. This policy of ignoring international law has been followed by the US ever since and now poses a risk to peace and national sovereignty everywhere.

Americans are taught that Hitler’s attempt at creating a fascist New World Order was the result only of his insane ambition. We are not told that since the Allies defeated Germany, the US has been working to create its own Empire, one that is fast coming to resemble Hitler’s.  Despite the obvious signs of a police state being created in the US with the passage of the Patriot Act, NDAA and the NSA program of unlimited domestic surveillance, most Americans refuse to see it.

 

The bellicose nationalism that so many decried when Bush was in office continues largely unopposed and the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war has been replaced by the use of terrorists to fight proxy wars in the name of “responsibility to protect [R2P],” a doctrine that exists nowhere in international law.

via THE ART AND SCIENCE OF PROPAGANDA » The Greanville Post —Vol. VII- 2014.

Ukraine: Russian propaganda and three disaster scenarios

By Mykola Riabchuk | Al Jazeera – 12 hours ago

As the Ukrainian presidential election scheduled on May 25 gets closer, Kremlin’s window of opportunity for invading the country and derailing its European course is gradually narrowing. The rhetoric of Russian President Vladimir Putin justifying the Anschluss of Crimea and unscrupulous meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs has been based on the premises that there is no legitimate government in Kiev, that it is being run by a gang of Nazis and anti-Semites who took power by coup d’etat and terrorised Russians and Russophones all over the country.

Such a claim, however calumnious and fully disproved on the ground by independent observers , opinion polls and the minorities themselves, can be sold nonetheless to some audiences, at least Russian, willing for various reasons to be fooled .

After May 25, when the presidential elections will happen, the propagandistic task would become much tougher. Neither Yulia Tymoshenko nor Petro Poroshenko – the frontrunners of the current presidential campaign – resemble anything close to the proverbial “nationalists”, “extremists” and “Russophobes”. In fact, both have actually been and remain primarily Russian-speaking in their life, even though, as most citizens of Ukraine, they have good command of Ukrainian as well.

via Ukraine: Russian propaganda and three disaster scenarios – Yahoo News UK.

Andrei Petkov, Rossiya 1 program, ordinary citizen, innocent bystander

Pity Russian propagandists. They must stage scenes of massive and violent demonstrations in East and South Ukraine. They must patch together actual demonstration footage with images of exploding grenades, intermittent automatic weapon fire, wounded pro-Russian civilians, and menacing Ukrainian extremists, organized, paid for, and directed by sinister outside forces. They must show valiant local civilians opposing the Neo-Nazi and ultra-nationalist juggernaut from Kiev.

The Putin propaganda machine cannot rest. It must provide new footage daily for a viewing public eager for the next Ukrainian outrage, growing angrier with each passing day, and asking: When will our great leader, Vladimir Putin, go in and rescue our poor brethren across the border in Ukraine?

Interviews with innocent by-standers and ordinary citizens are a staple fare of the coverage. A woman shows the camera hundreds of spent cartridges she gathered after a night of violence. Extremists turn outraged local residents, on their way to visit wounded comrades, away from the hospital.  A babushka, in tears, bemoans the terror in which she lives and pleads for the Russians to restore order and civilization. Pretty good stuff. I’d believe it if I did not know better.

The Russian propagandists, trapped on a racing assembly line, are bound to cross wires on occasion. They will make mistakes, which they hope that viewers will not catch. But they have made a huge blunder, for which heads are falling in TV studios in Moscow and in Crimea: Three different channels have featured interviews with one Andrei Petkov, lying wounded in a hospital in the south Ukrainian city of Nikolayev. In the three interviews, he is identified by name. He is on his back in a hospital bed, describing his experiences in the previous evening’s violence, which left him with serious wounds. Petkov is dressed in a black outfit, his nose bandaged. In each interview, he speaks softly, but with earnest conviction. He cuts a sympathetic and credible figure.

The problem is that Andrei  Petkov is a different person in each interview! 

via Russian TV Propagandists Caught Red-Handed: Same Guy, Three Different People (Spy, Bystander, Heroic Surgeon).

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

April 13, 2014

“No amount of propaganda can make right something that the world knows is wrong.”

– President Obama, March 26

Russia continues to spin a false and dangerous narrative to justify its illegal actions in Ukraine. The Russian propaganda machine continues to promote hate speech and incite violence by creating a false threat in Ukraine that does not exist. We would not be seeing the violence and sad events that we’ve witnessed this weekend without this relentless stream of disinformation and Russian provocateurs fostering unrest in eastern Ukraine. Here are 10 more false claims Russia is using to justify intervention in Ukraine, with the facts that these assertions ignore or distort.

1. Russia Claims: Russian agents are not active in Ukraine.

Fact: The Ukrainian Government has arrested more than a dozen suspected Russian intelligence agents in recent weeks, many of whom were armed at the time of arrest. In the first week of April 2014, the Government of Ukraine had information that Russian GRU officers were providing individuals in Kharkiv and Donetsk with advice and instructions on conducting protests, capturing and holding government buildings, seizing weapons from the government buildings’ armories, and redeploying for other violent actions. On April 12, armed pro-Russian militants seized government buildings in a coordinated and professional operation conducted in six cities in eastern Ukraine. Many were outfitted in bullet-proof vests, camouflage uniforms with insignia removed, and carrying Russian-designed weapons like AK-74s and Dragunovs. These armed units, some wearing black and orange St. George’s ribbons associated with Russian Victory Day celebrations, raised Russian and separatist flags over seized buildings and have called for referendums on secession and union with Russia. These operations are strikingly similar to those used against Ukrainian facilities during Russia’s illegal military intervention in Crimea in late February and its subsequent occupation.

2. Russia Claims: Pro-Russia demonstrations are comprised exclusively of Ukrainian citizens acting of their own volition, like the Maidan movement in Kyiv.

Fact: This is not the grassroots Ukrainian civic activism of the EuroMaidan movement, which grew from a handful of student protestors to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians from all parts of the country and all walks of life. Russian internet sites openly are recruiting volunteers to travel from Russia to Ukraine and incite violence. There is evidence that many of these so-called “protesters” are paid for their participation in the violence and unrest. It is clear that these incidents are not spontaneous events, but rather part of a well-orchestrated Russian campaign of incitement, separatism, and sabotage of the Ukrainian state. Ukrainian authorities continue to arrest highly trained and well-equipped Russian provocateurs operating across the region.

3. Russia Claims: Separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine enjoy broad popular support.

Fact: The recent demonstrations in eastern Ukraine are not organic and lack wide support in the region. A large majority of Donetsk residents (65.7 percent) want to live in a united Ukraine and reject unification with Russia, according to public opinion polls conducted at the end of March by the Donetsk-based Institute of Social Research and Policy Analysis. Pro-Russian demonstrations in eastern Ukraine have been modest in size, especially compared with Maidan protests in these same cities in December, and they have gotten smaller as time has progressed.

via Russian Fiction the Sequel: 10 More False Claims About Ukraine.

Source: RT

According to multiple unconfirmed sources, including RT, Ukrainian armored forces are attacking Russian provocateurs holed up in various East Ukraine cities, including Donetsk.

RT’s headline “Military storm airfield, town in eastern Ukraine, wounded reported – protesters.”, neglects to say it was the Ukrainian military, somewhat of an amusing oversight.

This story is now confirmed by KyivPost.  “Ukrainian troops storm Donetsk Oblast’s Kramatorsk airfield, Sloviansk; unconfirmed reports of casualties (LIVE UPDATES)“

NTV.ru also confirmed “Tanks in the Streets of Donetsk.”

According to a private Dutch source:

breaking: Ukraine ”government” claims their forces are encountering AND engaging the russian 45th airborne division in Slavyansk. very heavy fighting is taking place there.

Another source, also unconfirmed states:

General command in kiev: UKRAINE ARMOUR ON THE BORDERS HAVE BEEN TOLD TO PREPARE FOR A POSSIBILE IMMINENT INVASION, PUT ON HIGHEST ALERT

In the meantime, Russia does not want their takeover bid for East Ukraine blocked:  “Reuters: Russia says hopes Kyiv ‘has brains’ to avoid escalation.”

RT: “Video: Ukrainian fighter jets flying over Kramatorsk as army starts military op“.

Reports of a Ukrainian jet being ‘downed’ are incorrect, the jet was already being repaired.

So far, no response from the Russians.

Bottom line, folks, it appears that Ukraine is using force against the Russian provocateurs.

Provocateurs?  Yes.  According to the US State Department (in what has to be the single best document in this whole mess):

The Ukrainian Government has arrested more than a dozen suspected Russian intelligence agents in recent weeks, many of whom were armed at the time of arrest. In the first week of April 2014, the Government of Ukraine had information that Russian GRU officers were providing individuals in Kharkiv and Donetsk with advice and instructions on conducting protests, capturing and holding government buildings, seizing weapons from the government buildings’ armories, and redeploying for other violent actions. On April 12, armed pro-Russian militants seized government buildings in a coordinated and professional operation conducted in six cities in eastern Ukraine. Many were outfitted in bullet-proof vests, camouflage uniforms with insignia removed, and carrying Russian-designed weapons like AK-74s and Dragunovs. These armed units, some wearing black and orange St. George’s ribbons associated with Russian Victory Day celebrations, raised Russian and separatist flags over seized buildings and have called for referendums on secession and union with Russia. These operations are strikingly similar to those used against Ukrainian facilities during Russia’s illegal military intervention in Crimea in late February and its subsequent occupation.

Source: http://m.state.gov/md224759.htm

Russian?  “Russian paramilitary leaders in eastern Ukraine caught on tape communicating with Moscow.”

Singing the national anthem at a pro-Ukrainian rally on Tuesday in eastern Luhansk, where ethnic Russians are the majority. Credit Dimitar Dilkoff/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORNAPRIL 15, 2014

MOSCOW — The Facebook post on Tuesday morning by Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia was bleak and full of dread.

“Blood has been spilled in Ukraine again,” wrote Mr. Medvedev, once favored in the West for playing good cop to the hard-boiled president, Vladimir V. Putin. “The threat of civil war looms.”

He pleaded with Ukrainians to decide their own future “without usurpers, nationalists and bandits, without tanks or armored vehicles — and without secret visits by the C.I.A. director.”

And so began another day of bluster and hyperbole, of the misinformation, exaggerations, conspiracy theories, overheated rhetoric and, occasionally, outright lies about the political crisis in Ukraine that have emanated from the highest echelons of the Kremlin and reverberated on state-controlled Russian television, hour after hour, day after day, week after week.

It is an extraordinary propaganda campaign that political analysts say reflects a new brazenness on the part of Russian officials. And in recent days, it has largely succeeded — at least for Russia’s domestic audience — in painting a picture of chaos and danger in eastern Ukraine, although it was pro-Russian forces themselves who created it by seizing public buildings and setting up roadblocks.

via Russia Is Quick to Bend Truth About Ukraine – NYTimes.com.

A former Kremlin spin doctor rues his role in Putin’s rise

As tension mounts in Ukraine, the Kremlin’s spin doctors appeared to make an epic oops

From Joseph Stalin’s socialist sloganeers to Vladimir Putin’s spin doctors, Russia has a long history in the propaganda business. But a series of gaffes by Kremlin-run TV in recent months suggests they haven’t exactly perfected their craft.

Case in point: Ukraine. Earlier this year, Western-leaning protesters toppled a pro-Moscow president. All along, the Kremlin’s line has been that ethnic Russians in Ukraine are under threat from “fascists” the new Ukrainian government allegedly supports. And state-run television, the main source of news for most Russians, has done its best to reinforce this hotly disputed message—often with bizarre results.

What appears to be Russia’s most recent epic propaganda fail came late last week. First, the state-run Rossiya 1 channel described a balding, middle-aged man shown lying in a hospital bed as a protester who had been attacked by activists from the Pravy Sektor (Right Sector), a Ukrainian nationalist movement, at a rally against the new pro-European government.

via Inside Russia’s Gaffe-Prone Propaganda War | Vocativ.

15 April 2014 03:12 PM

Over the last week, groups of unidentified pro-Russian troops have stormed several towns on the eastern frontier of Ukraine. Putin has denied any involvement in the raids, but this hasn’t stopped tensions between Russia and Ukraine reaching new heights. But how likely is war? And just what is Putin up to? To help answer these questions, we’ve put together a round-up of the best comment pieces on the ongoing crisis.

Once a spy, always a spy

“When is an invasion not an invasion?” asks David Blair in today’s Telegraph. According to Blair, the shadowy nature of Putin’s tactics are in keeping with his previous career in Russia’s secret service. “Ordering a conventional military invasion,” he says, “would have been far too obvious for this KGB graduate.”

And when Russia amassed up to 40,000 troops on Ukraine’s border, alarm bells must have been ringing at NATO headquarters. But was it all just a distraction? “Subversion from within – not attack from without,” writes Blair, “has emerged as Mr Putin’s favoured technique for controlling events in Ukraine.”

And it’s a technique that carries a lot of risks. What if Ukraine decides to fight back? “If they wrest back a town,” he says,  “killing a dozen or so Russians in the process, then Mr Putin could find himself under pressure to invade, whether that is part of his plan or not.”

Russia is likely involved, but directly?

It’s easy to assume that the unmarked troops appearing in eastern Ukraine are Russian, but a more nuanced approach is needed, says Volodymyr Ishchenko in today’s Guardian.

The way in which the attacks have been co-ordinated all point to Putin’s involvement,  he says. But we should take a closer look at the situation, as “this does not necessarily mean that Russian special operations units are directly taking part.”

“Those men could be former Ukrainian riot police officers,” writes Ishchenko, “many of whom fled to Crimea and Russia to escape punishment from the new government.”

via Unidentified troops and dangerous propaganda: The latest comment on Ukraine – IV Drip – Voices – The Independent.

April 16, 2014

Russian state media has been skewered in the West for its often outlandish coverage of events in Ukraine.

The “misinformation, exaggerations, conspiracy theories, overheated rhetoric and occasionally, outright lies,” reverberate “hour after hour, day after day, week after week” on Russian TV, according to “The New York Times” on April 15.

But according to a poll, conducted in late March by the state-funded Public Opinion Foundation, some two-thirds of the Russian population trust government-controlled television more than any other medium.

A lecture by a history professor, apparently recorded in mid-April, sheds some light on Moscow’s media strategy and why it seems to work.

“Television determines the agenda,” says Valery Solovei, in his hourlong talk at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). “The methods that I am talking about create a world view, something that’s called a ‘reality.’ A reality is created for us. If we see this reality the way it is brought to us by television, then we act in accordance with this reality.”

via Russian Professor Explains Media Manipulation.

Best of Putin puns. 

http://www.politico.com/multimedia/video/2014/04/playback-best-of-putin-puns.html#.U1BVV2FpPk0.gmail

Politico.com has a daily feature called Playback, where they compile the previous night’s best videos.  This one was especially pertinent, funny too!

I just wanted to share…   enjoy!

BY KEVIN ROTHROCK Share

Russia’s isolation grows by the hour. Last month, 100 nations endorsed a U.N. resolution to condemn the annexation of Crimea. Earlier this month, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe deprived Russia of its voting rights in the body. One of the most reposted, regrettably racist, Russian-language tweets in April marvels that even Nigeria’s U.N. representative is now lecturing the Kremlin about the ills of “nineteenth-century-style spheres of influence.”

If you think any of this fazes most Russians, you are wrong.

President Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings are at a five-year-high, Moscow’s land grab in Crimea enjoys wide support, and most Russians (63 percent, in fact) are confident in the state-run media’s objectivity. Economists are fond of pointing to the massive losses Russia absorbs on the Moscow stock exchange every time the Kremlin provokes new trouble in Ukraine. Just on Monday, the MICEX dropped 2.5 percent, erasing billions of dollars in market capitalization. So far, by and large, ordinary Russians do not care. Not while there’s a war on, it seems.

via The U.S. Is Losing to Russia in the Information War Over Ukraine | New Republic.

Government backed cultural programs often come across as just propaganda.

Not the best approach to soft power

By Michael Shank April 14, 2014 One comment SHARE

The United States Department of Defense used it recently in Yemen and Pakistan. The U.S. State Department is using it right now in Afghanistan and Nigeria. The U.S. Agency for International Development used it in the last elections in Kenya. It’s been used in every American war zone over the last decade and it’s becoming an increasingly relied upon tool in U.S. foreign policy.

For the Pentagon, it’s part of psychological operations, or “psy-ops,” but for the State Department and USAID it’s part of their “information operations,” all of which is intended to influence local populations. This is not some sinister National Security Agency operation or anything as surreptitious as what the Joint Special Operations Command might cook up. This has everything to do with what Washingtonians and others have termed “ soft power” and the role culture and arts play in winning the hearts and minds.

For many governments – America’s included – these “softer” strategies (in contrast to the “hard power” of military maneuvers, sanctions, etc.) are being employed with good intention perhaps, but insufficient preparation, partnership or planning in a way that is strategic, sustainable and constructive.

via When U.S. Soft Power Becomes Propaganda – US News.

By Gregory Conti, Michael Weigand, Ed Skoudis, David Raymond, Thomas Cook, and Todd Arnold

Since 1950, the U.S. Army Ranger School has garnered a well-earned reputation as one of the most demanding military schools in the world.  Graduates have served with distinction in special operations units including the Ranger Regiment and Special Operations Command as well as line units throughout the Army.  With the emergence of cyberspace as an operational domain and the critical shortage of technically and operationally competent cyber[i] leaders, the time has come to create a U.S. Army Cyber Leader Course of equal intensity, reputation, and similar duration,[ii] but focused on cyber operations (see Figure 1). This article presents a model for the creation of such a school, one that goes far beyond just a tough classroom experience by using tactical close-access missions as a core component.  What we propose is unique, demanding, immersive, and fills a necessary gap in Army cyber leader development.  This article is a condensed form of a more detailed analysis and description of the proposed Army Cyber Leader Course.[iii]

Figure 1:  Cyber Tab.  A Cyber Leader Course of similar duration and intensity to Ranger School, but tailored to cyber operations would help fill the critical shortage of technically and operationally competent cyber leaders.

We intend for this new Cyber Leader Course to be quickly recognized as the cyber operator’s equivalent of Ranger School, much like the Sapper program has become the Engineer branch’s ‘Ranger School.’  There is much to learn from Ranger School and other elite training programs that can inform a Cyber Leader Course.  We face a critical shortage of qualified cyber leaders at all ranks and a demanding and rigorous Cyber Leader Course would develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities required of technically and operationally competent cyber leaders.  A cadre of highly qualified cyber leaders is critical to the professionalization of the cyber career field, but the Army currently lacks a method for developing these leaders.  While we propose the creation of an Army Cyber Leader Course, due to the inherently Joint nature of cyber operations, creation of a Joint, instead of Army-specific, school may be a logical follow-on.

Continued at http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/towards-a-cyber-leader-course-modeled-on-army-ranger-school?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=towards-a-cyber-leader-course-modeled-on-army-ranger-school

Monday, April 21st, 2014

By Ambassador Brian Carlson

The U.S. and European intelligence community has been bubbling for weeks with reports of “evidence” that the supposedly pro-Russian protesters and demonstrators in Eastern Ukraine cities are in fact Russian special forces soldiers.

The April 21 New York Times makes it abundantly clear with photographic comparisons that the mysteriously well-armed, professional gumen known as “green men” who have been seizing government buildings and setting up barricades in Eastern Ukraine are in fact identifiable Russian military and intelligence forces.

Any American teenager knows that Facebook and many other websites can, with today’s facial recognition technology, match up different photographs of the same individual with uncanny accuracy.  We should not be surprised that the New York Times and other news organizations have been able to do the same thing with Russian Federation troops who participated in the “uprising” in Crimea in February and in Georgia in 2008.  Some, such as Igor Ivanovich Strelkov, are even identifiable by name and rank.

via Russian Troops Unmasked | The Public Diplomacy Council.

As Russia masses tens of thousands of troops along the Russian-Ukrainian border, Putin is thwarting what the Kremlin says is an American plot to surround Russia with hostile neighbors. (Reuters)

He is far from alone in seeing the collapse of the Soviet Union as a catastrophe and the US as the author of Russia’s subsequent ills. The foreigners are to blame

By Philip Stephens Published: 16:34 April 19, 2014

 

John Kerry has a nice phrase. The West will respond to Russia’s 19th-Century behaviour with 21st-Century tools. The US secretary of state is missing something. Leaving aside whether Europeans can summon the political will to impose serious economic costs on Moscow for its march into Ukraine, there is another dimension to the conflict. Vladimir Putin has been winning the propaganda war.

The Russian president, a child of the KGB, has dusted down the disinformation playbooks of the Cold War. He has added an expensive 21st-Century gloss, harnessing 24-hour news, digital networks and social media to the Kremlin’s cause. Russia Today, the state-directed English-language news channel, is at once slick and untroubled by awkward concerns about accuracy and truth.

Given the state’s iron grip on the domestic media, it is unsurprising that Putin commands strong support at home. The stifling of internal dissent has seen him tap a powerful emotion — nationalism rooted in grievance. He is far from alone in seeing the collapse of the Soviet Union as a catastrophe and the US as the author of Russia’s subsequent ills. The foreigners are to blame.

More striking is the impact that the sharp, well-funded propaganda strategy has had on opinion beyond Russia. Much public sentiment, particularly in Europe, runs from indifference to a sense that Putin may have a point. If he turns Ukraine into a failed state, what is in it for others to interfere? Doesn’t democratic Europe have troubles enough of its own?

via Putin is winning the propaganda war | GulfNews.com.