How does classic Russian propaganda work?

Oksana Moroz, founder of the information hygiene initiative "How to Not Become a Vegetable". Author of the books "Nation of Vegetables?", "Struggle for Truth", and the course "Information Hygiene during War" on Prometheus. Host of the radio blog "I do not believe" on the Culture radio station. She tells how classic Russian propaganda works using the case method. 

You can learn more about it from various cases in the course "Information Hygiene during War" on Prometheus (link to the course in the storylines). The course was created with the support of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine and the Ukrainian Library Association.

The commandments of classical Russian propaganda duplicate the KGB methodology. It was clearly illustrated by the New York Times in the documentary "Meet the KGB Spies Who Invented Fake News": based on the testimonies of former agents and researchers, journalists showed that Russia uses the same techniques as during the Cold War. They can be summarised into seven commandments.

Russians find the sore point. They look for economic, social, demographic, linguistic, ethnic - any sources of social differences. And they inflate them so that people lose trust in each other. 

It should be so unique that no one can even believe it is possible. Spread it everywhere. Experts, politicians, astrologers, journalists, and the military are to speak about it—each for their audience and with their arguments. Eventually, people start to believe. How not to recall the quote attributed to Goebbels:

For a lie to gain credibility, it must be wrapped around a truthful core. Unfortunately, the most successful information campaigns contain elements of truth, and thus disinformation is accepted.

So that the message's source seems to be someone else, it is easy because 42% of Ukrainians do not check information. 

It is how Russia calls those who thoughtlessly accept the Kremlin's messages and promote them. 

What happens when truth seekers try to refute a fake? Deny everything. Even if it is obvious - deny it. 

Russia seeks to play the long game and invests considerable resources in things that may not bear fruit for years. But, eventually, accumulating these operations over a long period will grant the desired result.

But this approach is practical when there is doubt about who is evil. Now there is none, so Russians use hidden tools. We will talk about them further. 

Putin has cancer. That's excellent news, isn't it? But for the fact that he already had to die several times. The first information that the dictator was terminally ill appeared back in 2003. Then, after each aggravation of relations with Russia, a new disease appeared.

There are two peaks of media diagnosis of cancer in the dictator - 2014 and 2022. In both cases, the media claimed that the tyrant had started the war with Ukraine to "have time to go down in history". 

In October 2014, the New York Post published a story that Putin has pancreatic cancer. The publication reported that he was allegedly treated by a doctor whom Putin met while serving in Dresden. The article stressed that Putin had three years to live. 

In the spring of 2022, several sources published information about another cancer. The anonymous resource General SVR actively spoke about it: it reported that Putin would soon have an operation, and its cause was an unidentified form of cancer. In April, New Lines received an audio recording of an oligarch close to the Kremlin, in which he claims that Putin has blood cancer. 

Firstly, Putin may be sick, and they hide such information. A healthy tyrant is one of the pillars on which the Russian dictatorship rests. In addition, Putin's image builds on masculinity. So how to stop spreading information about diseases? Regular discrediting. It is how systemic fakes appear, which leads to nothing. And each next one is believed less. 

Secondly, it is a magic way to solve all problems. If Putin dies, the war will end. So we relax and drink lavender latte instead of helping the army. And the third is hype: Putin's illnesses always attract attention. 

The main task of the terrorist is the media effect. No matter how many people die, the main thing is to intimidate millions. Russia is a terrorist country, so it uses the same tools. Let's analyse the events of July. 

On July 1, the United States gave the first HIMARS. We can count the July terrorist and information attacks from this day.

July 1. Serhiivka. Russian missiles hit a house and a recreation centre. There were 22 dead. The terrorist attack occurred against fears of an attack from Belarus. Rumours of an attack or a missile strike at 4 am were spreading. All from sources: a friend in the Security Service of Ukraine said.

July 10. Chasiv Yar. Russian missiles hit an apartment building. For several days, more and more victims were reported daily - 15-40-48 dead.

On July 14, Russian missiles hit the centre of Vinnytsia. Moreover, the death of the girl Lisa raised the emotional intensity of Ukrainians to the maximum. In this context, there were reports that on July 15, Putin would make an allegedly historic speech. In it, he was supposed to announce the revival of the USSR and sign an "agreement" with Lukashenko and Yanukovych. 

On July 15, Russian missiles hit an industrial facility in Dnipro. 

At the same time, Russia's so-called experts added emotional pressure to terrorist attacks. For example, Yulia Latynina published tweets claiming that Putin would bomb Bankova Street. 

From July 15 to 17, there were more air raids than usual. During one of them, on July 16, there were massive reports that 48 missiles were flying. There was even a list of cities with the exact time of potential arrivals. 

On July 17, Medvedev wrote a post with threats of "doomsday". Ukrainians began to receive text messages that allegedly "massive rocket attacks were planned from July 19 to 21" and "sabotage groups from Belarus would advance up to 15-20 km into Ukraine". 

On July 23, there was a shelling of the Odesa port. On July 28, telegram channels circulated a video of Russians torturing a Ukrainian soldier. Then, on July 29, a Russian cluster shell hit a bus stop in Mykolaiv, killing five people. A few hours later, there was news about the explosion of a barracks in Olenivska colony - Russians killed 53 Azov prisoners, and 75 were injured. 

Amid this, Russia launched another information and psychological operation to discredit the government. It was accused of surrendering the Azovs. The next day, the Russians allegedly published lists of the dead and wounded in Olenivka. There were no other sources, and the families could neither confirm nor deny the information.

The month of terror ended with a Russian missile hitting the house of the famous Ukrainian farmer Oleksii Vadaturskyi. 

It is the chronology of the Russian terror during one month of the war. And this is just a list of resonant events which Russians used for information and psychological operations. 

Here is what happened on October 10. Do you remember the message about "retaliation for the bridge"? Now many people think that these sources must have known something. It is precisely what the enemy is counting on to spread panic and make us stop. It is their method. 

The enemy is constantly sending out warning messages. At some point, it may coincide with reality. People connect "warnings" and arrivals and trust the source. The source will regularly publish such "insights", and people will spread them. The result is panic.