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Russia's President Vladimir Putin and his "cook" Yevgeny Prigozhin: the boss of the Wagner Group helps spread the propaganda with his trolls
Photo:
Алексей Дружинин/ РИА Новости
"The Kremlin and its intermediaries provided these funds in an effort to influence other political publics to support Moscow."
The US Department of State in a Summary of Intelligence Findings (2022)
“These people don't represent the state. This is a matter for private individuals, not for the state."
Vladimir Putin comments on the "troll factory" of his henchman Yevgeny Prigozhin at a press conference with Donald Trump in Helsinki (2018)
Russia has "invested" at least $300 million in other countries since 2014, and hundreds more millions are planned, the New York Times reported, citing US intelligence findings.
The money was spent with the aim of “exercising political influence and changing election results”.
Personally, I was not a bit surprised by this news, on the contrary: I assume that the 300 million is only a small part of the money that Vladimir Putin's regime has been investing in many places for many years to destabilize Western democracies and other countries .
To sow discord, to promote Putin-friendly parties, groups and people.
The US State Department also sees it this way: The document cited explicitly states that evidence of further financial support was probably not discovered.
The long list of bribes
It has long been known that Putin's people go to great lengths and dedicate themselves to cultivating their relationships with far-right – and some left-wing – parties and movements in Western Europe.
It was also discussed in detail in this column.
The list of those whom Putin allegedly had bribed was already quite long: Marine Le Pen is definitely on it, as well as Silvio Berlusconi, Matteo Salvini, Nigel Farage and various British lords.
As early as 2015, the US government suspected that Putin was also financially supporting Jobbik in Hungary and the Northern League in Italy, but also Italy's Five Star Movement, Greece's Syriza and, at the time, this was formulated as a suspicion by the US, possibly also the left in Germany.
I personally believe that the correct list is much longer, and that it also includes many people who are not active in politics in the usual sense, but in what is now called the "pre-political space".
Once again, it should be remembered that the battle cry "lying press" in Germany did not only experience a renaissance with Pegida, but even before that: in the context of the "peace vigils", in which, curiously enough, NATO was blamed for Russia's invasion of Crimea .
That was in spring 2014.
Missionary enthusiasm for Russia
The sudden, even missionary enthusiasm for Russia that suddenly showed itself among German right-wing extremists, conspiracy theorists and esotericists was extremely noticeable even then.
Nothing changed when various central figures of this scene from that time later reappeared at Pegida, and subsequently at the »lateral thinkers«.
In a “taz” report on one of the “Monday vigils” from 2014, for example, the following already appear: Jürgen Elsässer, formerly a left-wing extremist and now a long-time right-wing extremist and editor-in-chief of the “assuredly extremist” magazine “Compact”;
People who make money from conspiracy content like Ken Jebsen and Heiko Schrang.
And Eva Herman is also mentioned.
The conspiracy ideological scene in Germany came together for the first time, with the aim of conducting Russian and pro-Russian propaganda.
She still does that today, even if the topics change superficially.
How Russian Propaganda Works: Case Study
In a publicly funded research project with HAW Hamburg, the Leibniz Institute for Media Research and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, we were able to examine in detail a current example of the complex ballet of disinformation that Putin's paid and voluntary accomplices perform around a specific narrative.
The case study shows how Russian propaganda works in the West to this day - and who is involved.
more on the subject
Protest movements: now the climate »lateral thinkers« are coming A column by Christian Stöcker
It's about a story you've probably heard before (in a representative survey in April 2022, almost seven percent said they actually believed it): the claim that Ukraine runs US-funded bioweapons laboratories, and Russia therefore had to attack - in self-defense, so to speak, to forestall a bioweapons attack on the Donbass.
Old story, repackaged
The story itself is quite old and pretty much exactly the opposite of the truth.
In recent years, Russia has accused various of its neighboring states of having US-funded bioweapons laboratories, including Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.
For example, the European anti-disinformation site »EU vs Disinfo« reported on this back in 2016, since then dozens of examples of this and related stories have been collected there.
All Russian propaganda outlets are involved.
In 2017, even Vladimir Putin was personally involved, with a special version of the story that has been circulating ever since: foreigners collected »systematically and professionally« »biomaterial« from Russians.
“Why are they doing this?” Putin asked at the time.
Unspoken answer, of course: Weapons specially tailored to Russian genes are being developed.
In other words, the “bioweapons” lie game has not only the blessing, but the backing of the autocrat himself. And is no doubt being propagated with the help of the paid trolls of his henchman, propaganda organizer and mercenary entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin
.
It starts three days before the invasion
Nothing more needs to be said here about the factuality of the allegations, which have been modified again and again, as various fact-checking organizations and editors have long since done so.
In fact, the very idea that the United States should set up something as highly sensitive and dangerous as a bioweapons program that violates international agreements in Russia's neighborhood is absurd - after all, since Putin came to power, Russia has regularly been at war with those neighboring countries.
Developing highly dangerous pathogens there would be as risky as it would be ludicrous.
What is particularly interesting is how and with which methods the old story was brought out again and polished for the invasion of Ukraine:
The German propagandist in St. Petersburg
On February 21, three days
before
the invasion,
an obscure Russian Telegram channel published documents purporting to show that Ukraine planned to buy Turkish drones capable of spraying aerosols.
On the day of the attack, February 24,
the pro-Russian propaganda post "Anti-Spiegel" produced in St. Petersburg asked: "US bioweapons laboratories in Ukraine: what will Russia find?" A few days later, the operator then publishes the before the start of the war, "documents" were launched - as so often with a question mark in the headline: "Has Kiev prepared a bioweapons attack on the Donbass?"
In short: Alleged evidence for one of the various constructed reasons for the war was deliberately circulated days before the attack.
It was then dutifully prepared and interpreted for a Western audience by good helpers such as the "Anti-Spiegel" operator, a German who likes to pose with the Russian military.
In this specific case, the next source of coverage is the former newsreader
Eva Hermann
, already mentioned : she passes on »bioweapons laboratories« stories from »Anti-Spiegel« to her more than 200,000 Telegram subscribers.
The Russian propagandist Alina Lipp, who is now being investigated for approving a war of aggression that violates international law, and who sometimes appears in a Russian uniform, also provides a reach.
Of course »Infowars« is also participating
Meanwhile, the English-speaking scene of conspiracy fans is talking about the fact that Russia apparently bombed exactly where the alleged weapons laboratories were located.
Specially made maps circulate.
The US conspiracy ideology central organ
»Infowars«
is right at the forefront , also
on February 24th
.
And in Germany, days after they were set up, brand new social media accounts are allegedly spreading sensational secret documents “deleted from the Internet by the United States”.
Otherwise, almost everyone in this country is on board who was mentioned above in connection with the "Monday Vigils":
Ken Jebsen, "Compact"
, Eva Herman.
A connection between Covid and Biolabor conspiracy stories is often made.
You have to keep the newly won audience in a (bad) mood, appropriate to the topic.
First Prime Time, then Bundestag
In early March, Fox News propagandist Tucker Carlson claimed on his show that there were secret US bioweapons laboratories in Ukraine.
Carlson called his State Department's denial a "lie."
On March 25, 2022, the old story made it into the Bundestag in a new guise: Steffen Kotré from the AfD is at the lectern of the German Parliament on this day and says: »We also have to talk about the bioweapons laboratories in Ukraine, the aimed at Russia.«
The whole thing is accompanied by a constant, sometimes violently swelling, background noise on social media.
Occasionally, new "evidence" and "documents" are launched to keep the story simmering.
This also makes the reaction more difficult: You can paralyze fact checkers relatively easily by constantly presenting them with new "evidence" that needs to be refuted, because that takes work in each individual case.
But if you look at the course of events as a whole, it quickly becomes clear: We are dealing with a concerted, thoroughly planned and coordinated action – and with absolute certainty not only with the »Biolabs« conspiracy narrative.
Supported in part by volunteer help from the conspiracy fan community and those who make money from conspiracy content.
For example, by selling products to their customers, such as Infowars (dietary supplements and »masculinity« products) or Eva Herman (including products for doomsday preppers).
»Use official channels«
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Christian Stocker
We are the experiment
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At the point where things get even more interesting, however, journalistic research and academic work reach their limits: who paid whom, and who gave whom the marching orders and the narratives?
Proving funding flows requires an arsenal available only to law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
It is to be hoped that the publication by the US State Department cited at the beginning is the start of an internationally concerted campaign that will finally put Putin's propagandists on display in public, on social media and in politics.
"The United States will use official channels to inform affected countries with classified information about Russian operations targeting their political sphere," the document quoted at the beginning says.
It's time.
We have let Putin's propagandists have their way for far too long.