Russian Disinformation Review – Issue 47 – 15 November 2016

From rigged elections to rigged demonstration

Unsurprisingly, the outcome of the US Presidential elections featured in disinformation stories this week. Whereas before the US elections we saw warnings in pro-Kremlin outlets that the elections would be rigged (http://bit.ly/2fPMayl), as previously reported in the Disinformation Review (http://bit.ly/2fPd5Zr), no such allegations were voiced once the result of the election was official. Instead, the same disinformation outlets began to voice their concern that George Soros was paying for protesters in the US to oppose the result (http://bit.ly/2fNClPF); and that the Democratic Party was refusing to accept the result (http://bit.ly/2fxZ3fp). This despite the fact that both President Obama and Democratic Party candidate Clinton publicly accepted the result of the vote (http://nyti.ms/2fne0k6).

Meanwhile, Russian national TV devoted a programme to considering what the new US President would mean for the world, including his possible impact on Ukraine. We were told that, with Mr Trump in the White House, Ukraine will “finally have a chance of becoming a democracy” (ignoring the fact that it already is – http://bit.ly/2eR2YSM).

Some old favourites

This week saw some disinformation favourites recycled in pro-Kremlin outlets. The decline of Europe was a major theme – for example, we learned that the economy in the Baltic states has collapsed (http://bit.ly/2fWNFxL). No explanation was given as to why, then, the citizens of the Baltic states are comparably happy with their standard of living (http://bloom.bg/2eSwg3K).

Pro-Kremlin media outlets also told us that the Finnish government and plenty of other EU member states take children away from Russian families if they want to move from Europe and back to Russia, and that this is due to –  you guessed it – Russophobia (http://bit.ly/2fWOkPH). This disinformation was eloquently refuted by the Finnish government already in September (http://bit.ly/2ddFf4d).

In Greece, we saw the repetition of disinformation coming directly from the Russian President himself about the EU’s alleged failure to protect children (http://bit.ly/2eCGViU) as the Disinformation Review reported last week (http://bit.ly/2fPd5Zr). This disinformation was, by the way, even removed by the first pro-Kremlin outlet that reported it, since it was simply false (http://eepurl.com/cm1kYr).

Furthermore, we were told that trade deals with the EU are bad for the economy (http://bit.ly/2g5O8xS) and that the EU is the vassal of the US (http://bit.ly/2fxZ4jw).

But amidst the old we got a new dose of historical revisionism too, when we learned that Stalin built at least 20 000 churches in Georgia (http://bit.ly/2fxIPTZ), a claim which sits rather oddly with Stalin’s repressive anti-religion campaign (http://bit.ly/2ekodBc).

Turning Syria’s civil society into a target

Finally, Russian government-controlled news agencies continued their focus on Syria, and relayed the incorrect message that local councils in eastern Aleppo are “self-proclaimed” and “far from representing the people”; that they are “playing up to terrorists” and “obstruct UN humanitarian relief efforts” (http://bit.ly/2fOKzsx). This misrepresenting of the councils as affiliated with terrorism deploys a central method in the pro-Kremlin disinformation playbook: to call parties that don’t fit into its narrative as terroristic.

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