Very important

Why is it important to counter Russian propaganda and fakes?

How it can affect your life and the situation in your country

Deadlines

Russian propaganda is the information policy of the Kremlin, which is formed by the top leadership of the aggressor state in order to influence domestic and foreign audiences. The purpose of propaganda within Russia is to intimidate its own population and at the same time to convince that all the actions of state leaders are aimed at the benefit of their people. Example: "You should go kill Ukrainians, because Russia cannot allow the spread of a new form of Nazism and the dangerous influence of the West on our culture."
Russian fakes is the information that is presented as fact, but with distorted details or frankly made up. The goal is to influence a certain audience by creating the illusion of the desired (customer of fakes) reality. Example: "The USA and the EU have decided to negotiate with Putin." At the same time, the words of marginal politicians or experts are cited as confirmation, not of US and EU officials.

Why is it dangerous?

The fact is that any information, political or expert statements emanating from Russia or its satellites primarily protects the interests of the Kremlin. In Russia (under the leadership of Putin), there is no freedom of speech, no freedom of expression of the will of the people, no opposition and no independent media. Do you think that in such a situation it is possible to trust the information broadcast by Russia and its satellites? Any reasonable person will say: "No". This is what happens in most democratic countries, but many people still believe that Russia should be reckoned with, it should be respected, and economic and cultural ties should be developed with it. Despite the huge number of bloody and catastrophic conflicts initiated by the aggressor state. It's time to remove the veil from your eyes. An aggressor will always be an aggressor.
Therefore, at this very moment, the special forces of the Kremlin are preparing and distributing new fakes in order to influence you, the leaders of your states, and public figures. To achieve their imperial interests: weakening competitors, opponents, appointing loyal people to leadership positions, capturing entire business industries and clusters, forming the necessary public opinion. Russia (now allied with China) independently decides in which world we should live with you. And she is not interested in our opinion. Even international norms, agreements and institutions are not the truth for the Kremlin's cleaners.

Viktor Demianenko
editor Russianfake.com

True reality

The political leadership of Russia long ago chose a course to restore the "great" Russian empire. This is confirmed by the words and state acts of the aggressor country itself (Google for help). 
Any empire cannot coexist with democratic states, because it considers them a threat to its regime. The very form of democracy and its possible spread to its own "zones of influence" is a direct threat to Russia. This is what happened to Ukraine, which, against the will of the Kremlin, chose a course for EU rapprochement and the establishment of real democracy in the country. You know what happened next. And before that there was Georgia. And even earlier - Moldova. Until now, Georgia remains "under the curatorship" of the Kremlin. It didn't work out that way with Ukraine. But the leaders of the Kremlin are ready to unleash bloody wars and special operations in order to take whole nations and states under their personal "guardianship".
If we look deeper into history, immediately after the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Union (that is, the leaders of the Kremlin) illegally (against the will of the peoples of these countries) established their regimes in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, part of Germany and in some European countries. They covered themselves, as always, with good intentions. Only with the collapse of the USSR, these countries were able to get rid of Soviet "curatorship".
It is also worth mentioning Russia's support of the criminal regime in Syria and Belarus, as well as special operations in African and Latin American countries. Today, there is not a single continent that is not of interest to Russia.

What is wrong with the people of Russia and ordinary people?

The fact is that the people of Russia voluntarily renounced democracy and the rule of law. Most Russians are very close to the "strategy of restoring the empire", the strategy of dominating the rest of the world. They sincerely rejoice at the capture of foreign territories and any victories over "harmful democracy". Although the standard of living of ordinary Russians is somewhere at the level of the countries of central Africa. And the level of freedom and rule of law is at the level of North Korea. They have voluntarily lived in such conditions for over 20 years, watching and hearing Kremlin propaganda every day 24/7. Do you think that this people can have pure and bright thoughts that differ from the Kremlin's policy?
As a confirmation of this, you can see how "agents of Russian intelligence" are exposed almost every day in various countries of Europe, Asia and America. Every adult with a Russian passport outside his country fulfills a certain role. Someone just uses their voice to spread propaganda and fakes, someone collects important or secret information, someone bribes local leaders, and someone helps arrange special economic operations to circumvent sanctions.

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The biggest fakes

Very important

Finland and the USA record large-scale operations of influence on the part of the Kremlin

According to the information of the Minister of the Interior of Finland, Lulu Ranne, cited by Reuters, it is about numerous cases of sabotage, cyberattacks and destabilization that create an atmosphere of uncertainty and doubt in society.
The law enforcement agencies of the country established that moscow is involved in:
• interference with GPS signals in sea and air transport in Finland;
• a cyber attack on the Fortum company, its facilities in Finland and Sweden, as well as the deployment of suspicious persons and drones to the company's facilities;
• DDoS attack on the largest bank in the Nordea region;
• numerous thefts at water supply facilities.

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The United States announced that russia was involved in the creation of a fake video of the destruction of ballots for Donald Trump. In the video, a person is sorting through and tearing up the ballots cast for Trump. Such a fake received millions of views on the X (Twitter) platform and is part of a russian disinformation operation. This is stated in the article of The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/26/russia-disinformation-campaign-pennsylvania-ballots

The Bucks County (Pennsylvania) Board of Elections has officially called the video a fake, saying the envelope and other materials depicted in the footage are fake. The kremlin has long been destabilizing the US election process and attacking candidates with deepfakes. The Washington Post wrote that russia lied to Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz. In the fake materials, he is accused of inappropriate communication with students during his work as a teacher and coach many years ago. Millions of people watched a video on the X platform with Matthew Metro pretending to be a Walz student. The real Matthew Metro, who now lives in Hawaii, said another person was speaking on his behalf in the video. He did attend the high school where Walz worked, but he was never his teacher.
"These Russian activities are part of a broader effort by Moscow to raise baseless questions about the integrity of US elections and to inflame divisiveness among Americans," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Security Agency said in a joint statement. infrastructure (CISA).

Russia is trying to bring Poles and Ukrainians into conflict against the backdrop of a natural disaster

A number of videos of dubious quality and false posts in which Poles allegedly blame Ukrainians for their troubles after the September flood spread online.Main topics:• Ukrainians are looting Polish shops (there were indeed cases of looting in Poland, but the participation of Ukrainians was not confirmed in any of them);

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• Poles cannot stay in a hotel, fleeing from a natural disaster, because all the places are occupied by Ukrainians (there is no mention of Ukrainians in the original posts);

• the money collected for the injured Poles will be given to the Ukrainians (in fact, Poland allocated significant financial aid to the affected citizens - only the first tranche is almost €5 million, and the EU allocated another €5 billion to Poland).The Polish Research Institute NASK, which monitors disinformation on the Internet, believes that russia may be behind these fakes. And the Polish military officially accused the kremlin of conducting the IPSO against the background of the flood.

Kremlin propagandists fake BBC presenter's voice

kremlin media outlets have posted a video in which BBC Business Today TV presenter Michelle Fleury said before going live that she would shoot herself if she had to discuss the situation in Ukraine again. The posts with this video claim that the presenter's remark was first noticed by Reddit users. This is allegedly proved by the fact that the video is watermarked with the platform's logo.However, photos and videos from Reddit are now stored without watermarks. Also, a search for Michelle Fleury on the platform revealed no posts from the last five years. 

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In the full version, no remarks about Ukraine are heard during the splash screen, which was generated using neural networks and added to the soundtrack.There is a significant difference between the two videos - in the fabricated video, Michelle Fleury appears on the screen after a six-second splash screen, during which her remarks about Ukraine are allegedly heard off-screen. 

In the full version, no remarks about Ukraine are heard during the splash screen, which was generated using neural networks and added to the soundtrack.This story is part of a large disinformation network called "Matryoshka". Now, new faces have appeared in it, namely employees of the world's leading universities: Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, Michigan, Bristol and others. In fact, the creators of fakes simply combine fragments of real videos of scientists with cuts of footage, with their generated voices in the background. For the first time, the use of such news was recorded in Dutch, Spanish, Indonesian, Thai and Portuguese.

Kremlin cybercriminals are attacking government websites and companies in Belgium

Hackers use DDoS attacks to overload servers with an excessive number of malicious requests, making websites inaccessible to real users.
In particular, the websites of the banking federation Febelfin, the Ministry of Economy, and the port of Antwerp-Zebrugge are not working. The website of the Belgian Cyber ​​Security Center is also unavailable.

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According to VRT (https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2024/10/10/hackerscollectief-opnieuw/), the pro-russian hacker group NoName057 is involved in cyberattacks. Hackers claim that their actions are a response to the statement of Defense Minister Lyudivin Dedonder about the intention to purchase three Caesar artillery installations for Ukraine.
Let's add that NoName057 has been carrying out attacks on allied sites since the beginning of the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine.
At the same time, a fairly powerful cyber community is also working on the side of Ukraine, which neutralizes similar hacker groups, as well as institutions involved in the kremlin's armed and informational aggression. You can join here

Russian special services are recruiting Europeans with pro-Russian views to Telegram

The messenger, originating from russia, has become a tool for illegal networks recruiting young men in EU countries for the purpose of murder and sabotage. According to Western security services, the kremlin's special services are involved in these illegal actions.As indicated in the investigation by OCCRP (an international non-governmental investigative journalism organization that covers topics related to organized crime, corruption, etc.), one of these cases was an appeal to the fictional character Valery Ivanov, who was offered money for sabotage through the "Hello Bot" account - attacks on NATO military facilities or assassinations.

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Similar Telegram channels are actively advertised in pro-russian media, including the "grey zone" channel (mercenary media of the Wagner group, russia). This method of recruitment has a low success rate, but is cheap for russia and can create chaos in Western societies, which is one of the main goals of the kremlin. Read the full text of the investigation here: https://www.occrp.org/en/investigation/make-a-molotov-cocktail-how-europeans-are-recruited-through-telegram-to-commit-sabotage-arson-and- murder

Russia has created a network of influence on events in several countries in Meta

According to the August 2024 Meta study, this network originated in russia and focused on fake news websites that spread fake news about politics.In Georgia, the influence network criticized protesters against the "foreign agent law" and supported the ruling Georgian Dream party. In Azerbaijan, she spread negative messages about the West and local events. In Armenia, she supported russia, criticized the prime minister and promoted pro-russian narratives.The network used fake accounts to redirect people to its websites. In particular, she has collaborated with people in Armenia to create videos on TikTok, YouTube and Meta apps.

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The network was discovered thanks to the notification of the non-profit organization ISFED from Georgia. The investigation also revealed ties to individuals associated with the moscow-based marketing firm IMA Digital.
In August of this year, Meta also exposed a fake network spreading russian propaganda to a European audience. Meta has removed 20 Facebook accounts, 14 pages and 9 Instagram accounts for violating its policy against coordinated inauthentic behavior.

This network, created in russia, was aimed at English-speaking and French-speaking audiencesFake news websites such as Euro Top News used fictitious journalistic pseudonyms and fake addresses to appear legitimate. Content on websites and social networks was probably created with the help of artificial intelligence.UPD: Meta has closed access to all its platforms to the russian propaganda media group RT (Russia Today).After careful consideration, we have expanded our current measures against Russian state media. Russia Today, RT and other related organizations are now banned from our apps worldwide due to foreign interference," the company said in a statement.

Agents of the Russian special services were detained in Poland

Game agents were detained in Poland on suspicion of preparing terrorist attacks on international flights. Criminals were preparing to set fire to parcels on board cargo and passenger planes bound for the USA and Canada.

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The Financial Times writes that the Polish prosecutor's office has issued international arrest warrants for two more people suspected of involvement in the preparation of sabotage. By the way, earlier the Lithuanian police arrested a suspect in sending four explosive devices, in particular through the DHL company in Vilnius. The detainee introduced himself as Igor Prudnikov, but the investigation found out that his real name is Alexander Suranovas, and he acted for the benefit of the special services of the kremlin.

The information war waged by the Russian Federation against the West reached Canada and Japan

Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau accused the russian media holding "rt" of funding bloggers and YouTube channel authors in North America who spread messages to "destabilize democracy".Trudeau said that "rt" sponsors, for example, Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson and other "right-wing bloggers". In addition, the prime minister mentioned the recent scandal with the Tenet Media channel. He also believes that it was russia in 2022 that intensified the chaos surrounding the "Freedom Convoy" in Canada. It will be recalled that this movement began as an anti-vaccination protest and turned into riots.

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In a recent interview with Ukrinform, the Chairman of the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, Ali Ehsassi, noted that despite the ban, russian media resources "remain active and now engage third-party media platforms to spread their disinformation." In addition, according to Ehsassi, the Canadian government understands that russia is not interested in the stability of the world order. 

"Another important aspect is the increasingly close interaction between the authoritarian regimes of russia, North Korea and Iran. Such a development encourages very close cooperation with our allies to oppose the intentions of these authoritarian states."Meanwhile, the website of Japan's ruling party was attacked by kremlin hackers. The responsibility for the cyberattack on the resource of the Liberal Democratic Party lies with the group NoName057(16) and the cyber army of russia. As noted by the Record, Japan became the victim of a cyberattack due to the upcoming large-scale joint military exercises with the United States.In addition, according to local media, russian DDoS attacks also targeted Japanese institutions, including shipbuilding companies, legal consulting agencies, as well as financial and government services.

"Reporters Without Borders" is launching a project to analyze the impact of propaganda and disinformation in the world

The key goal of the "Propaganda Monitor" project is to highlight the mechanisms and multifaceted nature of propaganda, increase public awareness of the problems it covers, and help better navigate the information space.As stated on the organization's website, the first season of the project will be devoted to Russian propaganda, with a special emphasis on the Kremlin-controlled media "rt".

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"If the promotion of credible journalism is the antidote to disinformation and propaganda, then understanding their mechanisms and identifying their subjects is a necessary condition for blocking them," RSF believes. In addition, the Propaganda Monitor section of the site brings together RSF's previous research and analysis on the topic, portraits, interviews and other content produced by international teams.

Russia bribed more than 130,000 citizens of Moldova to prevent its accession to the EU

In Moldova, a large-scale operation by russia with the aim of influencing the results of the referendum on the country's accession to the European Union and the results of the presidential elections was revealed. The head of the General Inspectorate of the Police of Moldova, Viorel Chornuetsanu, said that only in September, 15 million dollars were transferred from russia to the accounts of Moldovan citizens. They were supposed to spread disinformation, carry out provocations and attack state institutions.

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"russia seeks not only to corrupt voters, but also to provoke protests and destabilization on the territory of Moldova," Chernuetsanu said.
As a reminder, a referendum will be held in Moldova on October 20, during which voters will answer the question: "Do you support the introduction of European integration into the constitution of Moldova." Based on its results, countries can make changes to the basic law related to European integration. At the same time as the referendum, the presidential election of Moldova will be held.

Russia intensified its information war against Moldova

On October 20, the people of Moldova will go to the polling stations to elect a new president. Also in the bulletin: questions about the country's future relations with the European Union. In anticipation of the double vote, the kremlin's disinformation machine started working with renewed vigor. moscow wants to convince Moldovans not to support the pro-European course of President Maia Sandu, which allegedly leads to the loss of sovereignty and threatens the country's security.Some pro-russian media outlets in Moldova engage in blatant outright disinformation, while

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others only quote opposition politicians fighting against Moldova's EU accession, such as former president Ihor Dodon, fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor, and former governor of Gagauzia Iryna Vlach.Moldova received the status of a candidate for the EU in June 2022. 

The kremlin perceived this reversal of the former republic of the Soviet Union as the joining of Moldova to the anti-russian front, with which the West allegedly seeks to surround russia. For the past two years, pro-kremlin media have tried to portray Moldova's legal decisions on its path to the EU as "Russophobic" as part of the West's "hybrid war" against russia.And this despite the fact that russia illegally occupied part of the territory of Moldova (Transnistria) back in 1991, creating its own puppet government.Read more details about the information attacks of the kremlin in the article EUvsDisinfo:https://euvsdisinfo.eu/kremlin-disinformation-on-moldovas-referendum/

Polish special services neutralized a group of cyberspies controlled by Moscow, and Norway is preparing for sabotage

The exposed cyber group is connected to the Belarusian and russian special services, Polish Minister of Digitalization Krzysztof Hawkowski said.
The attackers started their cyberespionage campaign with an attack on the website of the Polish Press Agency (PAP), and their key goal was to infiltrate various Polish institutions, government agencies and state-owned companies that are connected to the security sector to steal information.

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The minister also noted that more than 400,000 incidents related to cyber attacks were recorded in just six months.
Meanwhile, in Norway, a change in the threat level of sabotage on critical infrastructure facilities by the russian Federation is recorded.

According to intelligence data, russia has become more prone to sabotage, in particular at oil and gas facilities, than a year ago. As noted by the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SSR), Vice Admiral Nils Andreas Stensens, quoted by Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/norways-spy-chief-sees-russia-more-likely-attempt-sabotage- 2024-09-10/), this intensification is, among other things, related to the kremlin's attempts to stop Western support for Ukraine: "We are observing planned acts of sabotage throughout Europe, which indicates Russia's clear efforts in this direction."

Western investors in Russian majors

The Molfar OSINT agency conducted an investigation into a large russian company in the oil and gas sector. Specialists analyzed about 30 of the largest Russian oil and gas companies ("Rosneft", "Gazprom", "Lukoil" and others). Among their owners and investors were many European and American companies.

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Perhaps that is why some in the United States and Europe react so painfully to Ukraine's attacks on russian factories that supply the criminal terrorist army and the kremlin's special services. And, obviously, there are influential forces in the democratic world that are directly interested in the existence of putin's dictatorship, because they have a good percentage of it.
Read the full investigation here (in English): https://molfar.com/en/blog/zahidni-investory-u-rosiiskii-nafti

The Czech Republic has detected a number of hybrid attacks from Russia

The report of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Czech Republic, devoted to the activities of extremist movements for the first half of the year, states that the russian special services received a "strong base in the country, which is easy to influence in order to spread their influence."

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The report notes that some former right-wing extremists have become supporters of the kremlin regime. Their priority task was not to incite hatred against migrants, Muslims, Jews, Roma or the LGBT+ community, but to "ensure the further change of values ​​and promote a positive image of russia."
A report by the Czech Ministry of the Interior also documented incidents of hate speech against Ukrainians and an increase in anti-Semitic incidents, especially online.

In the Baltic countries and Poland, 8 sabotage attempts by Russia were recorded

This year, the Estonian Security Service detained 13 people for desecrating several national monuments and vandalizing the cars of the interior minister and a journalist.In Latvia, in February, two men tried to set fire to the Museum of Occupation, and in Lithuania, in May, an IKEA store caught fire. This is reported by VSquare: https://vsquare.org/russia-sabotage-operations-baltics/

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Last year in Poland, a group of criminals was convicted of espionage for russia and planning to blow up the railway, which was used to deliver aid to Ukraine.What these cases have in common is that saboteurs are often recruited through the Telegram app.In addition, the special services of the USA and Germany prevented an attempt on the life of Armin Papperger, the general director of the arms concern "Rheinmetall", which was being prepared by the special services of the russian Federation. Here is the CNN post.russia regularly confirms its terrorist nature and recognizes no borders for its own subversive activities.

The Russian Orthodox Church is expanding its sphere of influence

In the confrontation with the West, russia is looking for allies among the countries of the Global South, in particular in Africa. Recently, the russian Orthodox Church (ROC) joined these efforts. On December 29, 2021, the ROC established its own exarchate in Africa, which should cover all African countries. Its activity is already visible in almost 30 African countries.The ROC is primarily a tool of the russian authoritarian regime (in particular, in 2022, the ROC officially blessed its military to kill Ukrainians), and its actions should be viewed in the context of russian policy and the strategic goals of the kremlin.

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In Africa, the russian Orthodox Church pursues several goals:● to increase the loyalty of the local population to russia, to the russian language and propaganda;● to strengthen the position of the ROC in its struggle for a dominant role in world Orthodoxy;

● create additional platforms and communication channels to promote the economic interests of the kremlin,
strengthening the activities of russian mercenaries, special services and agents;
● to turn African students into advocates of russia in the world.But all this is hidden behind peaceful slogans and colorful manipulations. The Church presents russia as a non-colonial state, a fighter against Western neo-colonialism and a moral defender of liberal values, which are portrayed as contradicting biblical teachings.More details about this at the link: https://euvsdisinfo.eu/the-kremlin-mobilises-the-church-for-war-for-africa/

How does Russia's foreign intelligence service work against Western countries

Journalists The Insider and Der Spiegel jointly conducted an investigation, the result of which were the materials of russia's foreign intelligence service regarding the information war against Western countries. Among other things, the service has the following tasks:• divide the target audience into two parts - rational and emotional. For each of them, throw your stories into the information space;

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• divide the target audience into two parts - rational and emotional. For each of them, throw your stories into the information space;
• use existing or specially created radicals in the virtual space to spread ideas, in order to act not on behalf of russia, but incognito;
• appeal not to the mind of the audience, but to the emotions, in order to achieve the goals set before the propaganda machine as soon as possible;
• continue foreign broadcasts by rt ​​and sputnik.

The special services of the Kremlin plan to expand the network of "manual" public organizations

russian special services have a strategy for 2024 to intervene in the political and internal information space of Western countries, media expert and investigative journalist Bellingcat said (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xHTR_okdKE) in an interview for LIGA.net Hristo Grozev.According to Grozev, the kremlin plans to create, support and filter public movements that look like they were organically created to protect the economic national interests of one or another country.

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Thus, russia is trying to weaken support for Ukraine "from below" by influencing electoral sentiments, using problematic and acute issues in each country, inventing a connection between these issues and Ukraine. Part of this model already works in countries loyal to the kremlin: Slovakia, Hungary, and Serbia. We can also mention the case of large-scale strikes by Polish farmers, which were coordinated by far-right political forces that maintain certain relations with russian political figures.Meanwhile, in order to counter russian aggression, the European Parliament on June 24 banned European parties from receiving funding of russian origin.

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