39 European Parliament Resolution of 23 November 2016 on EU Strategic Communication to Counteract Propaganda against it by Third Parties 2016/2030(INI), Nov. 23, 2016.
Edward Lucas and Ben Nimmo,
Information Warfare What Is It and How to Win It Cen- ter for European Policy Analysis (Nov. 2015). Rachel Oswald, Reality Rocked Info Wars Heat Up Between US. and Russia
CQ, June
12, 2017. Testimony of John Lansing, CEO and Director of the Broadcasting Board of Governors,
The Scourge of Russian Disinformation, Hearing Before the Committee on Security
and Cooperation in Europe, Sept. 14, 2017, at 3. require relatively small investments, but history has shown that they can have outsized results, if conditions permit. New technologies, updated policy priorities, and a resurgent brashness in the Kremlin and among its oligarch allies have converged to enable an expanded range of disinformation operations in Europe. According to a resolution adopted by the European Parliament in November 2016, have the goal of distorting truths, provoking doubt,
dividing Member states, engineering a strategic split between the European Union and its North American partners and paralyzing the decision-making process, discrediting the EU institutions and transatlantic partnerships and undermining and eroding the European narrative.’’
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Whereas the Kremlin’s propaganda inside of Russia glorifies the regime, outside of Russia, it aims to exploit discontent and grievances. Notably, the Kremlin’s disinformation operations do not necessarily try to convince foreign audiences that the Russian point of view is the correct one. Rather, they seek to confuse and distort events that threaten Russia’s image (including historical events, undercut international consensus on Russia’s behavior at home and abroad, and present Russia as a responsible and indispensable global power. Challenging others facts is simpler than the propaganda advanced by the Soviet Union—it is much harder to convince people that the harvest doubled in their local area than it is to plant doubt about what is happening thousands of miles away. Ben Nimmo of the Center for European Policy Analysis has characterized the Kremlin’s propaganda efforts as four simple tactics dismiss the critic,
distort the facts, distract from the main issue, and dismay the audience.
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At their core, the Kremlin’s disinformation operations seek to challenge the concept of objective truth. As the CEO of the US. Broadcasting Board of Governors
(BBG), John Lansing, put it, Kremlin messaging is really almost beyond a false narrative. It’s more of a strategy to establish that there is no such thing as an empirical fact. Facts are really what is being challenged around the world.’’
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For Putin and the Kremlin, the truth is not objective fact the truth is whatever will advance the interests of the current regime. Today, that means whatever will delegitimize Western democracies and distract negative attention away from the Russian government. It means subverting the notion of verifiable facts and casting doubt on the veracity of all information, regardless of the source—as
Lansing also put it, If everything is a lie, then the biggest liar wins.’’
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Sometimes, it means going so far as using an image from a computer game as evidence of US. misdeeds, as Russia’s Defense Ministry did in November 2017 when it posted a screenshot from a promotional video of a computer game called AC Gunship Simulator Special Ops Squadron on social media and claimed that it was irrefutable proof that the US provides cover for ISIS combat
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40 Computer Game as Irrefutable Proof
EU vs.
Disinfo, Nov. 15, 2017. The image also appeared on a government-sponsored TV station, presented as a news story. The EU versus Disinformation campaign is an anti-disinformation effort run by the European External Action Service
East StratCom Task Force, created in response to the EU’s calls to challenge Russia’s ongoing disinformation campaigns.
See Chapter 7. Christopher Paul & Miriam Matthews,
The Russian ‘‘Firehose of Falsehood Propaganda Share with your friends: