Dissecting Russian Propaganda

By Julian Roumeliotis

jroumel1@mail.ccsf.edu

 

Russia is a country that relies on manipulating information. As a country with a strict authoritarian government, Russia must do everything it can to minimize reputation damage. Keeping a favorable view of itself in the eyes of the world requires demonizing other nations and organizations. 

Various international and nonprofit organizations refer to Russian media as “Orwellian” in nature.  All mainstream media in Russia is state controlled. Rand Research, a nonprofit think tank, refers to the Russian model of propaganda as a “firehose of falsehood.” Rand states that Russian media relies on multiple state-owned channels to push out similar information to display the appearance of a consensus of credibility. The more people see an opinion, the more likely they are to believe it.

Russian chat bots have been successful in spreading pro-Russian propaganda. According to a former Russian internet troll who provided information to Rand, the Russian media troll farm runs 24 hours a day, and the trolls work in 12-hour shifts. Each has a quota of 135 social media posts with at least 200 characters. According to ProPublica, a nonprofit journalist organization, Russian troll posts and comments are present on every social media platform.  According to Debunk, a nonprofit NGO, the Kremlin spends over a billion a year on propaganda. 

The U.S. Department of State says Russian backed media has made many false claims, from stating that Covid originated in the US and was a US bioweapon, to the 2016 ISIS attacks in Brussels being carried out by NATO false flag operatives. 

Alexander Dugin, a neo-fascist philosopher, has praised the work of the Ahnenerbe organization – a Schutzstaffel (SS) program that undertook pseudo-scientific research for the Nazis. He has endorsed Geopolitika.ru. Geopolitika is a media organization that advocates for a Eurasian Russian state. 

Geopolitika believes that Russia must annex all of Georgia, Ukraine, Finland, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. Dugin has been known to be closely associated with the Kremlin. 

Any independent journalists in Russia are purged. According to multiple international journalist organizations, dozens of famous journalists have been both imprisoned and killed in Russia and Belarus for writing about or protesting against the Russian government. Practicing free speech in Russia is illegal. Any form of media published associated with the Russian government in any way cannot be trusted as factual information.  The US government has the right to investigate and prohibit these organizations. The information they spread is falsified with the intention of undermining liberal democracy.