EUvsDisinfo: The scapegoat factory victims: the Kremlin's endless blame game (original title: The Scapegoat Factory: Kremlin’s Endless Blame Game)
The Kremlin's usual efforts to manipulate narratives and deflect blame from itself are running their usual course. This week Kremlin disinformers spread fabricated accusations against Ukrainian intelligence and NATO for the terrorist attacks in Dagestan and linked them to the events in Sevastopol to reinforce the narrative that Ukraine and the West are the aggressors.
Also, the Russian leadership has taken another tough step towards blocking access to quality Western journalism to prevent Russian citizens from gaining a clearer picture of the comprehensive failures of their country's regime.
The propagandists of the Kremlin also criticized the peace meeting for peace in Ukraine. They obsess over the peace talk while simultaneously making efforts to mislead both domestic and international audiences about the grim economic realities in Russia as a result of Western sanctions.
Sanctions – not that they are harming us, but please cancel them
The Kremlin-linked information manipulation and disinformation network actively covered the recent adoption of the 14th EU sanctions package against Russia. The package includes, in particular, sanctions against more propaganda mouthpieces – among them are old disinformation publications such as “Rossiyskaya Gazeta“, “RIA Novosti“, “Izvestia“ and the media with the rather misleading name “Voice of Europe” (“Voice of Europe“).
Predictably, Kremlin mouthpieces resorted to recycling familiar propaganda messages about the sanctions – for example, that the EU is harming itself with the sanctions and that the Russian economy will not suffer from the sanctions. All these claims are baseless. For example, in this post you can read about the unfulfilled dreams of Russian propaganda about the collapse of the EU. Which doesn't happen anyway. In this current series infographics and the EUvsDisinfo team takes a closer look at the Kremlin's manipulative messages and lifts the veil hiding the real state of the Russian economy and the effect of Western sanctions on it .
Selective “truth“
Russia blocks access to 81 European media – this is an example of how the information landscape in Russia is becoming more and more one-sided and dominated only by the “truth”, which is to the taste of the Kremlin. The blocking decision is also an act of revenge for cutting off access to Kremlin propaganda in Europe.
This move by the Kremlin represents another attack on freedom of speech and media pluralism in Russia. Meanwhile, another blow was struck against quality journalism – the reporter for the “Wall Street Journal” Evan Gershkovich, detained 15 months ago, was brought before a court in Moscow on trumped-up charges of “espionage” in a case conducted entirely in the Soviet style.
Peace, but only on the Kremlin's terms
Russia paid considerable attention to the summit on peace in Ukraine organized by Switzerland in Bürgenstock on June 15-16 – the goal was to make the meeting pointless, and its meaning – belittled. The Kremlin prepared the information space long before the meeting by signaling that Russia was supposedly open to a peaceful settlement of the crisis and at the same time pushing the manipulative message that Russia was actually fighting for peace in Ukraine and that the conflict would end if Ukraine surrendered. This narrative follows the Kremlin scapegoat tactic, ie. misleading representation of Ukraine as an aggressor, and of Western support for Ukraine – as the real reason for Russian military aggression.
The inability to lose
During and after the meeting, the Kremlin pushed hard for messages that it was unimportant because of the lack of Russian involvement, that it represented a Western plot to escalate the war, and that it was ultimately just money down the drain. The pro-Kremlin ecosystem, supported by Putin himself, issued an undisguised ultimatum suggesting that in order to have peace, it is mandatory to accept Russian territorial gains. The ultimatum was promptly rejected. Despite these disinformation and harassment tactics, the meeting enjoyed solid international participation and produced a joint communique which the Kremlin and his manipulative media cohort frantically belittle, claiming it is a “total failure” and a most ordinary “gathering of the West“.
Other topics in this week's review from EUvsDisinfo:
- The propagandists gave a fresh example of the "finger pointing" tactic used by the Kremlin: they spread baseless claims that Ukrainian intelligence and NATO countries organized the terrorist attacks in Dagestan. These false claims are part of the existing Kremlin narratives about the “terrorist regime” in Ukraine and for the West, which “supports terrorist organizations” in the Middle East. By the logic of this narrative, the blame for civilian casualties in Russia resulting from its invasion of Ukraine is placed on the West and its support for Ukrainian self-defense. It is important to remember that Russian disinformation has a habit of attributing both assassinations in Russia and attacks on ethnic and religious grounds to outside forces. This tactic is intended to shift responsibility from the shoulders of the Kremlin, to cover up the inadequacy of the Russian security services, and to increase public distrust of Western countries and Ukraine.
- The Kremlin's disinformation network took advantage of the tragedy after the Crocus City Hall attack to fuel anti-Ukrainian and anti-Western sentiment in Kazakhstan. Now the Russian media – in order to manipulate public attitudes and deflect any blame from the Kremlin – spread false claims that “The West initiated a terrorist campaign” in Russia and Central Asia. As always there is no credible evidence to support the claims of “Western intervention” in an alleged conspiracy in Kazakhstan and anywhere else. We can interpret these claims as a sub-variant to the more global disinformation narrative of the West's policy of staging “color revolutions” around the world to “destabilize Russia”. Narratives like this are an example of projection, ie. attributing your own mistakes to external factors. It is a fact – and is duly documented – that Russia itself is carrying out destabilization activities both in Europe and in other regions.
EUvsDisinfo/ translation: Representation of the European Commission in Bulgaria