Russian disinformation in the Ukraine war

In the information war against Ukraine and the Western world, Russia has deployed a wide range of tactics. Here is an outline of them: - The usage of the true information (photos, video). However, spreading it under false pretenses. Example: an actual message sent by a Ukrainian from XX that green corridor is being shot at and they can't safely evacuate. It's said, however, that the Ukrainian army is the one shooting at it. - Denial of responsibility for real events. Russian Defense Ministry denies that a massacre took place in Bucha “All photographs and video materials published by the Kyiv regime, allegedly testifying to some kind of "crimes" by Russian military personnel in the city of Bucha, are another provocation” (Ragip Soylu on Twitter). See also: The Guardian.
 * Deepfakes of Ukrainian President (Zelensky) - Russian intelligence services have prepared a deepfake video where Zelensky is saying that he has surrendered. Source: Metro.uk
 * Mass messaging of Ukrainians in the warzones - phones’ of soldiers constantly receive SMS: “Moscow has given the go-ahead to use Armed Forces in Donbas. There is still some time left to save your life and leave the Joint Forces Operation”. They use the equipment that sends this message to all phones in the coverage area. This is a kind of psychological warfare aimed at discouraging the opponent. Straight out of the Nazi WWII playbook. Source: Medium.
 * Articles on pro-Russian websites - saying that the war has been already won. This is done in order to calm down the Russian people and gain support. (Source: Ria Novosti)
 * Mass blockage of the free press inside Russia - to avoid the information about real losses in the war and prevent mass protests against the current government. Source: NY Times; Kamil Mikulski: "Novaya Gazeta began removing articles on the aggression on #Ukraine in conformity with the provisions of the recently adopted "#fakenews law". This is not an isolated case where regulatory measures are weaponized against the #media and justified by the "fighting #disinformation" paradigm. Human rights observers are right in this respect (and in many others too). Laws targeting disinformation can be detrimental to civil society, freedom of speech and free exchange of information."
 * Criminal punishment for a different opinion - 15 years for spreading "fakes" (in reality - the truth) about Russian soldiers. Source: Fontanka. 3 years - for advocating pro-sanctions against Russia. Source: Rosbalt
 * Thretening with fines - (Ars Technika) "Roskomnadzor, Russia's censorship authority, issued another demand on Tuesday for Wikipedia to remove what it called "unreliable socially significant information." The agency warned that failure to comply could lead to fines of up to 4 million rubles ($50,000)."
 * No access to social media - Facebook, Twitter blocked. Source: The Guardian. Going back to the roots. Putin is starting to develop the same kind of censorship that was prevalent in the Soviet Union. The goal is to destroy and block all sources of information other than the state-run propagandistic media.
 * Circumventing Western social media blocks on Twitter (Eliot Higgins on Twitter) and other platforms. RT is seeking new ways to spread pro-Russian propaganda. Julia Davis on Twitter: "Head of RT Margarita Simonyan describes Russia's covert operations to continue the Kremlin's info-wars by circumventing various blocks by YouTube and other media platforms: they continue spreading Russian propaganda in the West, while hiding the fact that it's Russian propaganda".
 * Bots - there has been a tremendous amount of Russian bots attacking memes and news pages. Some of them pose as foreign citizens, with the most common one being a representative of the American Far-right.
 * Twisting the truth
 *  Paid tik tokers and Instagram influencers - Russian government is establishing paid partnerships [s with media personas and asks them to film videos in support of "special operation in Ukraine". Source: Reddit
 * Created fakes only to debunk them - Craig Silverman on Twitter: "Over a dozen Russian-language videos spreading on social media claim to debunk Ukrainian disinformation. But they’re actually part of a disturbing campaign that spreads disinformation by disguising it as fact-checking."
 * Use of newspeak: 'special operations' instead of invasion/ war. This is an upcoming feature of Putinism. (Kevin Rothrock on Twitter)
 * Use of a network of Twitter accounts. (James Clayton, BBC) : "On 28 February, Twitter announced it would prevent tweets from Russian state-affiliated media outlets from being eligible for "amplification" - meaning they wouldn't be recommended in the home timeline, notifications, and other places on Twitter. But Twitter has confirmed to the BBC that this policy does not include Russian government accounts. ... He [Tim Graham, a social media analyst at QUT Digital Media Research Centre in Australia] discovered that the Kremlin's network of Twitter accounts work together to retweet and drive up traffic. This practice is sometimes called "astroturfing" - when the owner of several accounts uses the profiles they control to retweet content and amplify reach. ... "It's a coordinated retweet network," Mr Graham says. ... Muddled and incomplete information on the ground means only examples of misinformation which are easy to prove are taken down on platforms such as Twitter. Added to that, Twitter's own public interest exceptions means tweets from government officials can be treated differently from other accounts." See also: Tim Graham on Twitter.
 * Mobilizing students - Kevin Rothrock on Twitter: "Education officials in Petersburg have instructed schools and universities to conduct a “unified lesson” on April 19 [2022]to teach students [afen 12 and older] about Nazis and their modern-day “accomplices” throughout the West. Students are supposed to write about it afterward on social media."
 * Mobilizing Western Alt-Right - Belinda Barnet on Twitter: "JK Rowling is making headlines around the world for this but the real story is scarier still: Putin is calling on all that right-wing, indignant sentiment the Kremlin has been quietly stoking for a decade. He’s calling his troops. The battle cry is “cancel culture”." This is not seen by all. F.i. Stephen King on Twitter: "Putin, who has totally banned any media that doesn't parrot his government's line about the war in Ukraine, today made a speech railing against cancel culture. You can't make this stuff up--no one would believe it."
 * Cyberattacks - attacks against Ukrainian targets coordinated by the Russian APT28 hacking group by means of seven domains used as attack infrastructure. Microsoft has taken them down. (Source: Bleeping Computer)
 * Erasing the word 'Ukraine' from textbooks - In Russia the state has ordered publishers to eliminate the word "Ukraine" from textbooks. An attempt to erase a nation and a people, and to leave no trace, has begun. (Mediazona; in English) "In the beginning of March [2022] school lessons were about good neighbors." (Source: Russian_VDV_Textbooks on Twitter)
 * Using authentic-seeming posts - The Internet Research Agency (IRA) takes organic content posted by real users that is consistent with its messaging as its starting-point to amplify. (The Guardian)
 * Hacking (The Guardian) "Meta traced the effort to take over the social media accounts of dozens of Ukrainian military leaders back to a shadowy hacker organization known as Ghostwriter, has been previously linked to Russia’s ally Belarus. Ghostwriter has a history of spreading content critical of Nato, and has tried to hack email accounts."


 * See also: an overview by Demagog
 * [An analysis by TVN Uwaga (part 1 in Polish)]

Russian perspective
 * (Probably an FSB analyst, linked to by Christo Gruzev on Twitter) "... an information war is strictly a war of attack, where there is no place for defense. Ukrainian information workers simply burst into our territory: the demonstration of prisoners, their calls to their parents - amid attempts to remove our official information from the Russian audience, we received a total domination of information "alien". In terms of information, we suffer a defeat that in the first days was a complete defeat. Fakes, beautiful motivational legends, throws in, disinformation, pieces of quite real information from the battlefield (we did not let this kind of information on the air at all) - this is where the American training seems to have given the biggest results. And here we must also add unexpected behavior of Zelenski, which no one was ready for. His image of a drug addict and comedian (we focused on this) against the background of his media pitch played a cruel joke on Russia because of the dissonance of his image and behavior. The situation was finished with the fact that we did not have a symmetric answer: V. Putin, keeping his distance from the closest circle, looked much more lost to any outside observer than Zelensky, and we did not have our own charismatic figures to counterbalance the constant broadcasting of Ukrainian figures. In recent days Russia has been building its own model of media behavior, but, first of all, it was too late, and, secondly, in the media field it is by definition harder for us against professional showmen. Incomparably so."