Free Republic

Unlike Soviet propaganda, Russia’s information warfare does not crudely promote the Kremlin’s agenda. Instead it is calibrated to confuse, befuddle and distract. In the words of Peter Pomeranzev and Michael Weiss, modern Russia has weaponized information, turning the media into an arm of state power projection. Their nihilistic approach is best summed up by the motto of the Kremlin's premier TV arm, RT (formerly Russia Today): “Question more.” Russian disinformation does not aim to provide answers, but to provoke doubt, disagreement and, ultimately, paralysis.

In his book Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power, the German Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper wrote the following: “That the existential realm of man could be taken over by pseudorealities whose fictitious nature threatens to become indiscernible is truly a depressing thought. And yet, the Platonic nightmare, I hold, possesses an alarming contemporary relevance. For the general public is being reduced to a state where people are not only unable to find out about the truth but also become unable even to search for the truth because they are satisfied with deception and trickery that have determined their convictions, satisfied...

This is something odd about the case that occurred to me earlier in the day. How often do you see minors who have been suddenly catapulted from ordinary anonymous life into national and international fame by some incident, and they are apparently routinely interviewed by the media by themselves? No parents or other family with them during the interviews, and no attorneys either. I've seen two videotaped interviews of him, one with the Dallas Morning News, and the other on Al Jazeera, and read other interviews, and so far it seems like he does the interviews alone. I do remember...

Sophie Cruz's encounter with the pope during a parade in Washington this week looked to be one of those spontaneous, once-in-a-lifetime-moments Francis has become known for. But for 5-year-old Sophie, the chance to wrap her arm around the pope's neck as he offered a hug, kiss and a blessing unfolded as perfectly as it was scripted by members of a coalition of Los Angeles-based immigration rights groups. For nearly a year the group had been preparing the young girl from suburban Los Angeles to make a dash for the popemobile to deliver a message about the plight of immigrant parents...

ULAN-UDE, Russia -- Journalists at a Siberian newspaper say they spent three days using scissors to cut an article about a Russian soldier who was wounded fighting alongside pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine out of 50,000 copies of the publication. Tank crewman Dorzhi Batonmukuyev's accounts of fighting in eastern Ukraine have added to what Kyiv and NATO say are incontrovertible evidence of direct Russian military support for the rebels in a conflict with government forces that has killed more than 6,000 people since April 2014. Russia denies it has sent troops or weapons into Ukraine.

[VIDEO] The BBC's Natalia Antelava and Abdujalil Abdurasulov investigate the story of a 10-year-old girl reported killed in the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine - and discover that all was not as it seemed.

More and more, posts and commentaries on the Internet in Russia and even abroad are generated by professional trolls, many of whom receive a higher-than-average salary for perpetuating a pro-Kremlin dialogue online. There are thousands of fake accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, and vKontakte, all increasingly focused on the war in Ukraine. Many emanate from Russia's most famous "troll factory," the Internet Research center, an unassuming building on St. Petersburg's Savushkina Street, which runs on a 24-hour cycle. In recent weeks, former employees have come forward to talk to RFE/RL about life inside the factory, where hundreds of people work...

“Cutting through disinformation about consciousness is vital, because neuroscience is moving toward a mind-controlled society, based on the idea that individual awareness is an illusion, and stimulus-response is the key to shaping a new Collective of synchronized ‘happy’ brains.”

They all sounded convincing at the time: like the picture claiming that the leader of Islamic State group had been killed, or that a Saudi women had gone to Syria in the name of a "sex jihad". But they all turned out to be fake. With the help of our Observers on the ground, throughout 2014 our team got to work debunking dozens of images. Here's a look back at our top ten.

Our reader Sam King made a StopFake Review in English with some added comments. There are top 75 cases that provide evidence of Russia’s Kremlin attempts to lie about their invasion of Ukraine. Most cases show Kremlin Backed Media companies using old photos to create false reports.

<p>The internet troll army’s selling of the Kremlin’s parallel universe to the Russian people and to a skeptical Western audience is a matter of life and death for the Putin regime. If the Russian people do not buy their story, Putin loses the high “ratings” on which his regime rests. If he cannot convince his Western audience, Europe and the United States will take actions that spoil his Novorossiya ventures and threaten his regime. Trolling is a high stakes business that Putin takes seriously and the West must not underestimate.</p>

(…) While Putin was sitting alone at the table, the other tyrant (not elected in democratic elections) was warmly received, accepted if not worshipped. Current First Secretary of the Communist Party of China (It is worthy to note that Prime Minister Abbot and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop did not even dare to utter his full communist title in their public statements) enjoyed their company. Comrade Xi, as he should be known, not one time declared that the Western democratic values can not be reconciled with Marxism-Leninism. Comrade Xi preaches “Chinese Dream” that is another disinformation term to conceal the totalitarian...

U.S. will continue to get a black eye internationally for trying to save the lives of black Africans Stories that the Pentagon manufactured Ebola in a laboratory have been surfacing in a number of U.S. and foreign media outlets, helping to create even more of a panic over the spreading disease. A new variation of an old Soviet charge, it is designed to besmirch the reputation of the United States in black Africa. In the hands of Russian disinformation specialists, it could spark protests against the stationing of U.S troops in Africa to restrict the Ebola outbreak.

Videos, pictures and explanation can be found at link. From the article: Translation (of angry residents): This shooting is from the city, but this is not Ukrainian army. Exactly. The is shooting from new DNR. They want to break all private houses here. They make this especially for picture and for tv for Russia. They make especially this, because they want that it look like Ukrainian army make this. But it was never that Ukrainian army was shooting. Show this on tv what I say: this is only for picture on tv. They said all this was destroyed by Ukrainian...

Russia This Week: Defense Ministry Claim on Buk in Billboard Video Doesn’t Add Up By Catherine A. Fitzpatrick July 20, 2014 1753GMT: The Russian Defense Ministry gave a briefing today for the press in which they claimed that information released by the Ukrainian government on Friday about Russian-backed separatists’ possession of the Buk anti-aircraft missile system likely used in the shoot-down of the Malaysian airliner was a hoax. Among the items addressed at the briefing was a short video released by the Ukrainians showing what appears to be a Buk anti-aircraft system on a truck escaping for the Russian border....

Russian TV’s latest use of old video footage from the North Caucuses to claim Ukrainian atrocities against civilians was swiftly exposed, with embarrassing reports appearing in different countries. Viewers, including many in eastern Ukraine, whose view of events is shaped primarily by Russian TV will not realize they have been duped, of course, but even western reports often pay little attention to Moscow’s highly specific dividing line between terrorists it “destroys” and pro-Russian militants in Ukraine it defends [....] Except, of course, that the corpse seen as epitomizing the carnage of civilians perpetrated by the pro-Ukrainian National Guard had already...

The Empire of Lies, Part I Commentary for 19 May 2014 I conducted three interviews in recent days about the struggle for freedom in Ukraine, Venezuela and Romania. From writer and political analyst Sammy Eppel, I learned how the Communists are coping with powerful opposition forces in Venezuela. I also spoke, once again, with Ukrainian activist Boris Chykulay who updated me on events in Ukraine and offered his analysis; and I interviewed Anca-Marie Cernea, who was kind enough to explain the Ukraine crisis as seen from Romania – a country which struggles, even now, to break its old Communist shackles....

Russian media used shots of Ukrainian peacekeeping operation two years ago in their report about Donbas. Russian media reported false information about the anti-terrorist operation in Donbas, using video recording, which was almost two years old to compromise Ukrainian helicopters in Slovyansk. This information is provided by the regional media centre of the MoD of Ukraine in Chernigiv on Friday, 17th of May. Reports Correspondent. “Some Russian media (channel “Vesti”) were reporting that helicopters with symbols of the United Nations were taking part in the anti-terrorist operation. In reality, on the video is the Ukrainian peacekeeping operation in Congo, which...

More antiseptic sunshine than Man on the Moon, Glenn Beck shone the sun in when he opened the door to reality over his popular Internet television show on The Blaze TV tonight. The last thing the not-too-pretty reality needed was this blaze of sunshine. It’s a reality showing that the British government has bought into Cass Sunstein’s Harvard Public Law working paper, entitled “Conspiracy Theories” that shockingly includes a step-by-step set of instructions which pays government operatives to lie about people to utterly destroy their credibility.

One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction. It’s time to tell a chunk of that story, complete with the relevant documents. Over the last several weeks, I worked with NBC News to publish a series of articles about “dirty trick” tactics used by GCHQ’s previously secret unit, JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group). These were based on four classified GCHQ documents presented to the NSA and the other three partners in...