By this point, many of us know the nonsensical russian propaganda claims. That Zelensky is a Jewish space lizard or that a bajillion russian children were eaten in Donbas for 8 years by the ghost of Bandera and the ‘Avon Batallion’. We also know that few reasonable people take the claims seriously (apart from very gullible people, contrarians, tankies, Nazis, and terminally online people, but we will come to that in a bit).
However, many of us fail to account for how exactly russian propaganda can be quite insidious. It gets us all in ways we don’t realise, and identifying this allows us to better fight back and not fall for certain tricks.
- Russian propaganda works entirely differently at home and abroad.
We fail to truly comprehend the differences between their propaganda for the home audience, how that works, and for the international audience. When we conflate the two, we fail to know what and how to challenge the propaganda, and how to potentially convince people of their lies.
This is something that will shape everything else I say. Often people make assumptions and take russian propaganda aimed at the domestic audience at face value, or mock how unconvincing it is, without understanding the domestic situation within russia. Conversely, you can make mistakes about the nature of russian propaganda’s goals abroad.
For example, russian disinfo abroad mostly aims at demotivation (more on this in a minute), rather than convincing you russia is the best country ever and blameless or manifesting some destiny. We usually see more about “america bad” or “NATO expansion” rather than the madness we see in the domestic sphere. Because the goals are different.
The goals of russian propaganda at home have different approaches which can seem a bit confusing. They often aim at creating a sense of a threat abroad, such as the instability they will face without Putin, or that the west wants to wipe out russians, and the other key thing is that it tries to normalise the Kremlin’s politics and lies.
Russian disinfo abroad doesn’t work by convincing you russia is great. It works by making you unable to tell the truth from fiction and give up. While the distortion of truth does factor into domestic propaganda, it’s more prominent in international propaganda.
Why does russia like conspiracy theorists in the west? Why do they focus more on how “america is bad” or “Ukraine bombed Donbas for 8 years and committed genocide” rather than convince you russia is good? Because they want you to feel unable to support Ukraine or russia’s enemies in general.
By creating an alternative “truth” it tries to make you feel that you cannot verify any truth. I myself have even heard people say “Well these people say that, and others say this, so who is to say?” Well, if you are interested, go and research actual sources, find people on the ground, unbiased sources, journalists, and researchers who actually take time and effort to find statistics, data, and realities that are out there. It does exist, people just are a bit unable (or unwilling) to find it. Though part of this is thanks to the state of expertise…
It is important to identify the audience of the propaganda, to better combat it, as you need to see what the specific goals of the propaganda are.
When it comes to the domestic side of things, it does aim at demotivation, although in a slightly
different manner. Let’s talk about that.
- Disinfo, Isolation, and Intimidation
This concept is not my own by any means, I got it from this great article on LSE, which goes into more depth, but I’ll quote this trifecta:
‘When discussing propaganda, we often focus on the role of disinformation as a key element. Russian propaganda, however, relies equally on three elements – disinformation, isolation and intimidation. Successful disinformation and the construction of the war in a way that highlights its legitimacy cannot work without the isolation of the Russian information space from external sources that may challenge the Kremlin’s narratives. Thus, we can see numerous efforts to block any external platforms (e.g., by declaring Meta an extremist organization and blocking Twitter) and to prohibit independent voices (including declaring media websites and journalists to be “foreign agents”). That said, in the global networked environment, isolation does not offer an ultimate solution for the creation of an environment where disinformation can flourish without being challenged. Therefore, the third element of the Russian propaganda model is the intimidation of those seeking to challenge state-sponsored narratives. This intimidation targets both local media and individuals. New laws and new forms of regulation offer increased opportunities to prosecute those who manifest disloyalty and dissent. Intimidation also relies on a state-sponsored vigilantism that targets those unwilling to remain silent. The increasing failure of isolation policies leads to an increasing level of intimidation and repression.”
Essentially we have a good rundown of the different aspects of russian propaganda at home. By isolating and intimidating, they are able to promote disinfo unchallenged, and people will believe it or at least not voice concern. This then allows the government media (and a media illiterate public thanks to the lack of experience in this) to promote more and more outlandish claims, which then has a more insidious affect I will come to later.
It is worth noticing that domestic propaganda is inherently full of contradictions, but it creates an “us vs them” mentality which is part of the isolation aspect. I quote again from the LSE article
‘The demand side of propaganda also explains why people try to escape from any sources that may potentially lead them to question and challenge propaganda and its messages. This is also why propaganda often leads to what may look like irrational thinking, full of contradictions, on the part of its audience. Sociologists exploring the Russian public’s reaction during the war in Ukraine have identified such contradictions as one of the main features resulting from Russian propaganda. Once an argument is known that may challenge the propaganda, people either aggressively reject it or find a discursive strategy for ignoring the contradiction.’
So basically, we see that despite people saying on one hand “we are defending the russian speakers of Donbas from neo-nazis” along with “all Ukrainians are lost russians” and “We all used to be friends” along with “it’s not a real country”, at the same time. People cling to this contradiction and defend it in a relativistic manner. By being isolated from others, from perceiving the nonbelievers as an enemy “other”, they do whatever they can to uphold these contradictions.
Part of the contradictions is due to the distortion of reality, and the control of the media has made it harder to ascertain reasonable truth. This is part of the problem within russia. I do not think all russians are brainwashed, some absolutely are, but also some feel unable to determine the truth because the range of views is considerably different. It’s not brainwashed, it’s worse in some ways, its passivity and demotivation. A brainwashed person, when they see the reality, is motivated to spread the word. A demotivated person sees no value in change or seeking it out.
This creates a bizarre postmodern-type situation where there is no ability to understand what is empirically true. You can hear it in those videos of people on the street talking about “the west has their truth, we have ours”. It’s a bizarre statement in many ways, as my reaction is to find said truth, but it’s just a way to completely baffle people. When Rossiya One launches contradictory nonsense, it confuses people. The goal is as much about demotivating and distorting truth as it is about convincing people how great russia is. While abroad they also aim to do this, it has a bit of a different character.
So how does this trifecta work abroad? First, they will spread disinfo. This can be done by conspiracy theorists (who often can be tied to russian propagandists) and outlets like Grayzone with their ties to terrible regimes around the world or maybe RT or something like that. They spread disinfo first, and create a sort of bubble. The few that accept it (because perhaps they are susceptible to this kind of thinking have already bought into the conspiracy mindset) view everyone else who denies it as “other”. Have you noticed how many of the pro-russians also share the most outlandish conspiracies about COVID-19? Or that Gadaffi was just an innocent man trying to somehow unite Africa? Or that Bucha was staged? That all the plots for world domination are hidden in some emails? And that they assume this as a fact, and insult you with their own terminologies which make no sense? They are on one side, and we (the not insane) are on the other.
The distortion of truth is a major theme in international propaganda though, arguably more than domestically. In terms of fighting this, you have to think like Fox Mulder: The Truth is Out There. The truth can be messy, it can challenge our assumptions, and the whole picture may be difficult, but we cannot just give in to this. It is also important to explain to people this is what russia wants (and other authoritarian regimes).
Additionally, abroad we have the often-called “Firehose of Falsehoods”, which works by tricking you into thinking something is an established fact, and you also come to associate the falsehoods with the targeted group/country. Nazis+Ukraine or Baltics etc. is one of these examples. By throwing out the Nazis in X country sufficiently, people subconsciously will associate these terms with said countries, even if the evidence is lacking.
The more dangerous aspect is when we see footage or a photo of an actual nazi in said country, our brain begins to assume that maybe it was correct as well. This is why I do not advocate arguing “there are no nazis” as that creates an impossible statement that can be falsified easily. Getting bogged down in these discussions wastes time and ends up reinforcing the association. The best approach is to contextualise, emphasise the behaviour of russia itself being fascistic, and how their media focuses on minority political groups to discredit entire people. Same as painting all Muslims as terrorists or all LGBT as pedophiles etc.
So, the best approach to handle this nonsense is to flip the narrative and focus on how poor the narrative is, rather than focusing on the existence or spending days and days arguing about it. Take them to the defensive position, don’t give them space to peddle nonsense.
The intimidation is a bit different abroad as the russians do not have agents of the state able to go and harass everyone to disagrees. So the main thing is the threat of nuclear war, or that Europe will freeze to death, so even if you disagree with the mad stuff, this threat may make you acquiesce.
This trifecta is crucial to understanding the goals of russian propaganda and people need to familarise themselves with it.
- Normalisation of madness
Russia sometimes promotes the most ludicrous nonsense (the stuff we see on Rossiya 1) not necessarily to convince people, but to normalise the slightly less insane lies.
For example, for every “russia had to invade Ukraine to stop the biolab mosquitos and satanist Banderites” they are then normalising “Ukraine has Nazis and needs demilitarising” because while the latter is equally nonsense, it seems less mad by comparison. While it’s hilarious to mock the mad stuff, It’s important to identify what it is doing.
First of all, again, are they playing for the home or away audience? Domestically, due to many years of government control of the media people struggle to identify the truth. If Ukraine says “Russia is bombing us” and russian state media says “Ukraine has biolabs and they are bombing themselves” a person will go for the middle option, which is something equally mad. The range of acceptable opinions is so wildly different than what we have in the west, where we have a higher degree of media literacy, more free media, and access to social media.
When we are looking abroad, we don’t see the same mad claims as much but it is still there. Like when they said about bio mosquitos at the UN, they generally try to promote slightly less mad information themselves, and the conspiracy theorists push the biolabs and madder stuff, but russian state outlets in English language tend to calm them down a tad to rather distort our perception of truth. They create two parallel truths again to make you land in the middle with something still controversial. Not to the same extent as in russia, but still.
To combat this, you have to still focus on the less mad stuff and show it’s mad, and be aware of what is happening. While some people in russia may believe the most insane aspects, it’s a crafty way to manipulate people to consent to authoritarianism and war. Internationally, we need to not give too much space to the mad claims (though mocking 100% works well here) and emphasise the truth within russia’s actions.
- Bringing you down to their level
Finally, this is probably the most controversial point of this piece. Some russian propaganda is designed to inflame dissent and get you to undermine your own credibility, making you look as bad as them.
This has been how it worked within russian politics. The idea that “everyone is bad or even worse than Putin” has enabled Putin to rule for so long. They don’t try to deny that they do terrible things, rather, they run on the idea and promote the idea that everyone else is as bad deep down. Every country wants to invade its neighbours. Everyone wants to be a thief. Everyone is corrupt. Every presidential candidate is just the same as Putin. If everyone is as bad as Putin, why vote for them? Why do you think they love whataboutism so much? It dilutes the criticism by making everyone look bad, again, making you feel powerless.
This means we, as in pro-Ukraine, anti-Kremlin etc. have to sometimes be a bit careful in what we say, in order not to facilitate this. For example, let’s talk about Navalny. Now, I think Navalny has espoused some racist, chauvinistic nonsense and is hardly a radical freedom fighter. There are 100% legitimate criticisms of him and his supporters. I do not want him in power, though neither do I want him in prison.
However, the Kremlin also enjoys it when people focus on him more than them. They benefit from this because they also hate Navalny and it fractures support, and it can push russian libs away from supporting Ukraine too (again, not that I particularly care for russian liberals). When people start attacking russian liberals more than the Putinists or hardliners or saying things that sound violent or hateful (rightly or wrongly) they can then say “Look, everyone is as bad as we are! They hate all russians like we hate all Ukrainians” it works in their favour”.
Am I saying don’t criticise navalny or russian libs? Absolutely not. It is reasonable to ensure people are aware of the power structures that would be left in tact with them, and the dangerous side of their perspective. Though I don’t see Navalny coming anywhere near power any time soon.
What I am saying is, to be a bit tactful sometimes and choose your targets. Because they can then make the anti kremlin side look as bad as Putin. This is why I don’t believe we should celebrate war crimes, or lose any semblance of humanity. Zelensky actually does this well. He insults Putin, and he calls the russian people brainwashed in interviews, but he doesn’t go out there calling for genocide or something. He knows he has to rise above the russians and do better. It’s hard. Really hard in fact. You think I haven’t felt pure rage at russia during this? Of course, I have. But, ultimately, we have to hold ourselves to a standard and just be a bit careful. We are better than they are.
The other crucial thing is not to retroactively justify the things the west has done which russia criticises us for. When russia calls out our colonialism, don’t defend it. When they criticise the invasion of Iraq, don’t start justifying it. It feeds into their point that we are all as bad as each other.
So, there are some of my thoughts that I think not everyone grasps about russian propaganda. I’m happy to hear if you disagree with me, but if you can take away anything is that russian propaganda is more insidious than we recognise, and has very different purposes at home and abroad.
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