How are counterfeit products developed? Why did the Kremlin “kill” Igor Tantsyura and Valery Zaluzny?

More and more fakes began to appear in the information space from Russian propaganda. Until recently, as a rule, these were the “achievements” of the representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense Igor Konashenkov. Russian-speaking bravo reported that he had taken control of settlements (about five or six times) and destroyed Western weapons. For example, Konashenkov announced in his reports that 55 installations of M142 HIMARS rocket artillery systems were destroyed. At the same time, Ukraine should receive only 20 of these weapons. According to him, two installations of the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system, decision-making centers, headquarters and army control centers were destroyed in Ukraine.

Already at the beginning of May 2023, enemy propaganda shifted the focus from equipment and headquarters to personalities. The Russian propaganda media and the publics in social networks began to spread information about the death of Major General Igor Tantsyura, the commander of the Regional Defense Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. When the information was not confirmed and immediately refuted, they turned their attention to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valery Zaluzhny. The condition of the seriously injured commander was reported to be critical. True, this did not prevent Zaluzhny from being placed on the wanted list for attacking drones in Moscow and the Moscow region.

Alongside the frankly senseless frauds produced by Russian propaganda, well-planned information campaigns are emerging in the information space. As a rule, their sources are publics in social networks, profiles on Tik-Tok of so-called military persons. These are already well-formed posts on which old photos and videos of the destruction of the forces and equipment of the Ukrainian troops, sometimes even from 2014, are uploaded. There are frequent cases of creating “clone profiles” of the brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or the National Guard. According to experts, the handwriting of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s “troll factory” can be traced here. By the way, he was the first to report that during the days of Zaluzhny’s stay in the Ukrainian positions, the Wagner artillery had largely operated this part of the front.

According to Igor Popov, the political expert of the Ukrainian Future Institute, the propaganda and information element has always been part of the war. It is in this way that the forces and potential of the warring country are drawn to the war to the maximum extent.

“The information component is very important in any war, even in antiquity. The warring parties are trying to distribute victory, if not to raise the morale of the army and the rest. This has always been the case everywhere. Modern Russia with its propaganda is not the only exception, the Ukrainian command, tens and hundreds of is that they came up with the idea of ​​​​destroying weapons and equipment, while at the same time covering up their own losses to the end. Recall how they remained silent until the last moment about the loss of the Moscow missile cruiser and still did not talk about the loss of its personnel “, – speaks Focus popov.

How does Russian propaganda work?

According to a study by the international non-governmental organization Debunk, Russia spent $1.9 billion on propaganda and promotion in 2022. According to analysts, this amount is $400 million more than previously estimated. The main recipients of the financing were the international editorial office of RT, the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Corporation and the Russia Today media group (RIA Novosti, Prime, InoSMI, Sputnik and others). At the same time, social networks and bot farms were not included in the estimate.

Denis Bogush, a specialist in the field of strategic communications, assures that, despite all the nonsense and downright nonsense of Russian propaganda, he has his own audience, for which he works. These are people who say to themselves, “I’m not interested in politics,” that is, citizens who can’t think critically and control information.

“Once I conducted a study of Russian propaganda on the samples of four main Internet sources. Therefore, out of 700 news feeds per day in RIA Novosti alone, 200 were about Ukraine – 150 of them are complete nonsense. “About men” panties” “, neo- “Nazis, fascists, some brutal crimes. Propaganda feeds Russians with complete nonsense, they talk not only about Ukraine, but about hunger and cold in the UK, EU and the USA. All think tanks, public institutions, media and bloggers are working on this.” explains Focus.

According to him, there are those who read books and those who do not in Russian society. Secondly, 60-80% according to studies. These are the information consumers that propaganda is working on.

Russia to block Google and Facebook

Meanwhile, the Russian leadership began to discuss the possibility of introducing a state firewall. Similar to what happened in China. Putin’s Internet adviser, German Klimenko, spoke in an interview about the possibility of blocking a number of resources, including Google and Facebook. Thus, they want to isolate Russian users from the influence of Western media. On the way to strengthening authoritarianism, authorities are trying to replicate the Chinese or North Korean experience, where the population is kept at an information counter. In 2014, North Korean television broadcast a story about winning the World Cup. At the World Cup, North Korean football players did not even qualify, but on television the audience was told about the victory in the final against Brazil with a score of 8: 1.

Political technologist Sergei Gaidai explains FocusIn the absence of real victories and achievements, state propaganda promotes the most meaningless fictions for the public. In the case of Russia, where the information space is completely controlled and monopolized, this does not cause any difficulties.

“All this happens when propaganda contradicts reality. Look – they did not take Kiev in three days, they will already lose the war in certain aspects, their army is not “second in the world”, in fact, there is Gaidai, “There is nothing to brag about. It confuses the public. “While it looks wild and funny on the outside, it operates in a completely monopolized and controlled information space.” Focus.

Bogush states that Russia’s expansion was built on a combination of military and propaganda, which provided ideological underpinnings for it. For example, during the Russian occupation of Kherson, 15 Russian FM stations, several TV channels and newspapers started working simultaneously. Against the conditional 2-3 working from Ukraine. Russian propaganda produced a very high quality, powerful information product and developed the population.

“I always say that Crimea was lost, among other things, due to the absence of Ukraine’s information policy on the peninsula. It simply did not exist there, but the Russian one was there. Russian propaganda is very strong and operates all over the world – 40 Russian think tanks in France alone There are centers of the Russkiy Mir Foundation operating in more than 30 countries around the world. Every hotel in the world has access to Russian TV channels, the Sputnik radio station is working – all accessible continents in different languages,” says Bogush Focus.

The expert is confident that if in 2014 the operation of a number of Russian TV channels and information resources were not banned in Ukraine, in 2022 the pro-Russian population would have been many times greater.

Ukraine’s counter-propaganda

in conversation with focus experts point out that Ukraine also uses propaganda for its own purposes. However, this is due to the necessity of war conditions and influence on the enemy’s side. For example, a few days after the announcement that Valery Zaluzhny was “seriously injured”, a number of anonymous Telegram channels began to spread the news about the murder of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. It was stated that when he came to examine the conflict line, a drone attack was carried out on his vehicle. Even photos of the smashed car were shown.

Important

“Given that almost any information can be verified in the modern world, lying is a road to nowhere. In critical situations, information can be kept secret, in extreme cases it can be covered with military secrets, but lies can’t be told. Gaidai, there’s a certain balance between what can’t be told and what you have to speak honestly with. Honest speech is strategically more beneficial to trust than lies and silence,” says Gaidai.

According to Igor Popov, the activation of false information may begin against the backdrop of systematic attacks on Kiev. Thus, the Kremlin is trying to increase the psychological pressure and force them to negotiate on their own terms.

Meanwhile, it is noteworthy that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said that the “conflict” would be resolved if Ukraine refused to join the EU and recognized Russian as the state language. And the Russian Ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, in an interview with the BBC, said that the Kremlin is ready for peace with Ukraine, but on its own terms.