They are not us! And war is coming

This week, we registered two major trends in the most recent pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign - and we believe these trends are interconnected.

First, we saw a very strong emphasis on the message that people in the West are different from people in Russia: they have fewer values, or they have none at all; they are against Christianity, and against (Russian) Orthodoxy in particular; and they deny Russia and Russians the right to exist.

And second, we saw a rising stress on the subject of war. A huge amount of pro-Kremlin media spread the message that Ukraine / Turkey / NATO / Crimean Tatars / USA / UK / the West in general are preparing for a war, in some cases even for World War III.

Both of these trends were strongly emphasised not only in the print and online media, but on TV as well, by some of the leading mouthpieces of the pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign.



In the table, you will see multiple quotes regarding a possible war in both Vladimir Solovyov’s and Dmitry Kiselyov’s shows on Russian nationwide, government-controlled TV. Be it the USA, which is trying to incite a large military conflict with Russia in Syria (http://bit.ly/1PxrVAN); or the West, which prepares its population for a nuclear war with Russia (http://bit.ly/1KjiYfH, or http://bit.ly/1ThgSOx); or the Turks who are allegedly arming Crimean Tatars and ISIS fighters for a war in Crimea (http://bit.ly/1R3Om0Z). You can also find stories like “drunken Poroshenko threatens to invade Russia in ten days” (http://bit.ly/1LoDyGr // http://bit.ly/1KPKK3e), or “NATO is driving the world towards World War III” (http://bit.ly/1Qgsu5m). In all stories, it is always Russia standing alone against the rest of the world.

This comes against the backdrop of recent weeks, in which we have seen scaremongering about deadly viruses being spread from secret American laboratories in Ukraine towards the Russian population. Our network reported a couple of reverberations of this trend again this week (e.g. http://bit.ly/244Eew8).

Let’s declare him enemy of Orthodoxy!

Most of the value oriented disinformation stories that focused on the differences between Russians and those living west of Russia had the same starter - the recent meeting between Pope Frances and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.

This historical event was used by pro-Kremlin media to attack Western society once again. First, the disinforming outlets distorted the Pope’s quote and claimed he actually said that Vladimir Putin is the only man who can save Christians. They continued by claiming that the Western people deny Russians their right to exist. In the TV show Bolshinstvo, the anchor and the guest even agreed on the “fact” that Pope Frances has actually declared himself an enemy of Orthodoxy (http://bit.ly/1oAftHE).



Further disinforming was connected to laws regarding sex changes and same sex partnerships. In an outburst of homophobia, TV anchor Pyotr Tolstoy even said that people organising gay parades are a bigger threat for Christians than those people who cut off Christians’ heads (http://bit.ly/1SNlwFC). In the show you can also hear that the incorporation of the principles of tolerance into legislation is a major attack on Christianity (all precise timings are again included in the table).

Russia must expand its territory to save human lives