Politics
Putin’s Poisonous Propaganda
Ukraine and Russia are fighting an elaborate information war
As the Kremlin attempts to repair its faltering war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s propagandists are increasingly focused on fighting an information war directed both at the West and Russia’s own citizens. To this end, Russia recently outlawed Meduza, calling the popular independent source of Russian language news “undesirable,” while threatening to prosecute not only its journalists, but anyone who so much as shares or even comments on one of its articles.
But the Kremlin doesn’t just suppress unpleasant and unfavorable information. Russia has a rich history of crafting sophisticated disinformation campaigns aimed at dividing Western opponents, and muddling its own crimes. These so-called ‘active measures’ are designed to shape public opinion in the United States and Europe, making use of digital troll farms, kompromat, and hacking campaigns, all in service of the Kremlin’s malign political goals.
Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was exactly such an operation, conducted jointly by the FSB and GRU, Russia’s two primary intelligence services, in order to help elect Donald Trump, and harm America’s confidence in its own elections. It was a wild success, the gold standard for information…
