As we noted in the previous text of the section, conspiracy theories gained more importance and influence on politics during the presidential term of Donald Trump. It was he who repeatedly publicly supported all sorts of conspiracy theories and used the platforms of conspiracy theorists for his election campaigns. As a result, Russian propagandists have become more active in spreading conspiracy theories, using Trump's statements as false verification. The most powerful of these platforms is the conspiracy theory system called QAnon.

The political movement and conspiracy theory system QAnon emerged in 2017. Its name is associated with the history of origin. On the 4chan imageboard, a user named Q posted a series of messages in which he claimed to have access to classified information about Donald Trump's work as president. Subsequently, the user completely switched to 8chan, where the theory gained the most distribution.

The core message of the QAnon movement is that “a cabal of satanists, cannibals and pedophiles” is running “the global child trafficking market”. QAnon is a movement because it combines a number of different theories. In particular, in this case we are talking about the theory of “pizzagate” (democrats rape children in restaurants), but QAnon adds to it the image of Trump as a fighter against this phenomenon.

Supporters of the movement believe that the 45th president personally arrested members of the “cabal”, among whom allegedly were US Democratic Party politicians, business representatives and even medical specialists. Recalling the theory of “Ukrainian interference” in the 2016 US presidential election, QAnon promotes the idea that Donald Trump allegedly deliberately approved the version of the Russian origin of this interference and turned a blind eye to Ukrainian interference. All to engage Special Investigative Counsel Robert Mueller to expose the “child trafficking market” and prevent the “military coup” allegedly planned by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and George Soros.

QAnon is also considered an anti-Semitic movement due to its fixation on Soros and the Rothschild family. The movement gained momentum during the coronavirus pandemic as its supporters around the world protested most vigorously against vaccinations and quarantines. However, the attempt to forcibly capture the American Capitol on January 6, 2021 is considered the peak of QAnon. After it, large Internet platforms began to massively block accounts associated with the movement, because through them events were broadcast or calls to join illegal actions were broadcast.

Even so, the movement remains globally active and does not stop trying to explain Russia's war against Ukraine in its own way. In particular, QAnon representatives consider Russian aggression part of a global conspiracy to expand “the market for children and American weapons”. In addition, in these discussions, Ukraine plays the role of a rather lost sister - QAnon considers Russia's claims about the “danger” of Ukraine's membership in NATO to be fully justified and support the version that Ukraine provoked a war. Such messages can be seen, for example, at regular rallies for neutrality in Vienna, where supporters of the movement oppose both child trafficking and vaccination. At the same time, Ukraine is accused of playing along with the “pedophile satanic bondage”.

Russian propagandists actively use the property of QAnon. In particular, they duplicate the narratives of the movement and distort them for themselves depending on the situation. Like, for example, with a fake about a documentary about child trafficking in Ukraine, which Mel Gibson allegedly agreed to film. This was especially relevant in connection with the arrest of Donald Trump - anonymous pro-Russian telegram channels have already begun to complain about the American judicial system. Like, this is how pedophile democrats destroy political competitors. At the same time, they add stamps of movement on Trump's face. Despite the fact that all theses have been repeatedly refuted, this does not interfere with QAnon.

On the Russian forum, in the Georgian segment of Facebook and media spreading pro-Kremlin rhetoric, on June 9 and 10, they posted a photo with eco-activist Greta Thunberg holding a poster with the inscription: “Putin! Stop killing leopards!”. It's fake.

The fact-checkers of the Myth Detector project drew attention to the case. Greta Thunberg's photos were processed using the program. In fact, she was holding a piece of paper with the words “Let Russia strike for climate”, namely the photo she posted on May 14, 2019 on Twitter, in an attempt to urge Russia to join the protests against the climate crisis.

By spreading this fake, propagandists are trying to discredit environmental activist Greta Thunberg and distort reality to show that Ukraine will allegedly lose. They say that even powerful equipment does not help to defeat Russia, so it remains only to persuade them not to touch the Ukrainians. Earlier, Detector Media explained the message that Western technology is supposedly poor and unsuitable for use in Ukraine.

A number of Ukrainian media, citing the Polish edition Rzeczpospolita, disseminate information that Poland is less willing to help refugees from Ukraine. This is manipulation.

The fact-checker of the InfoLight.UA project drew attention to the case. They examined articles from Rzeczpospolita and other Polish publications that contained publications of a “survey of public perception of Ukrainian refugees and migrants, conducted in late May - early June by the Research Laboratory of the University of Warsaw and the Academy of Economics and Humanities in Warsaw”. According to fact-checkers, the study has an unrepresentative sample, because only 584 people took part in it (in Ukraine, more than 1,000 people participate) aged 16-65 years, the survey was conducted using a mixed method. Also, the real number of respondents whose support for Ukraine has decreased is 26%. Only 85% of respondents believe that Poland should help Ukraine in the war with Russia - this is a rather big figure. According to the survey, “5% of respondents oppose the admission of refugees from Ukraine to Poland, and this percentage has not changed significantly since the beginning of the survey”.

Specialists draw attention to the fact that this study is called “Public perception of refugees from Ukraine, migrants and measures taken by the government of Mateusz Morawiecki”, and it has political and pre-election overtones. “Elections in Poland are in the fall and, obviously, this is artillery preparation”, fact-checkers note.

The thesis that Russia is trying to end the war that Ukraine started in 2014 was promoted by Putin at meetings with military corps. He stated that “we are not the aggressors, the aggressors are they [Ukrainians], but we are trying to end the war by force of arms”. However, such conclusions are unfounded.

Russian propaganda is systematically spreading the thesis that allegedly Ukraine unleashed a war back in 2014, began to conduct hostilities against itself, and subsequently refused to sit down at the negotiating table. Since 2014, Russian propagandists have used the tactics of substitution of concepts and talked about the “civil war” in Ukraine. Behind this term, Russia's participation in the hostilities in the East of Ukraine was hidden. Now the Russians are conducting a “special military operation” on the territory of Ukraine.

By spreading such messages, Russian propagandists are trying to justify their actions and shift the responsibility for them to the victim. Allegedly, Ukraine started the war in 2014, and Russia is now trying to stop it. However, Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, started a war in the East and annexed Crimea. Earlier, Detector Media reported that a war broke out in Ukraine over the ban on the Russian language.

The thesis that the West is violating international law by supplying weapons to Ukraine was promoted by Putin at meetings with war correspondents. He also stated: “We have a lot of depleted uranium ammunition, we will use it in response”. Such a thesis is unfounded.

By annexing part of Ukrainian territory, launching a massive offensive, and committing war crimes since the invasion, Russia is violating international law and a number of international security agreements and the rule of law. In particular, it ignores treaties that guarantee the sovereign equality and territorial integrity of states, as well as the rules of law governing the basic principles of warfare. In May, Russia initiated a meeting of the UN Security Council on the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine. Then the representative of Japan to the UN said that Ukraine is defending itself from aggression, and the international community is providing assistance “so that peace and security reign in the world”. And the representative of France to the UN, Nicolas de Riviere, noted that Western partners supply weapons to Ukraine legally whereas Russia buys weapons - illegally - to replenish its stocks. “Russia buys drones from Iran, and missiles and ammunition from North Korea. By these actions, Russia violates the UN resolution”, Nicolas de Riviere said.

By spreading this message, Russia is trying to discredit its Western partners and portray them as violators of international law. Thus, propagandists are trying to divert international attention from Russian war crimes, violations of rights and treaties and shift responsibility for what has been committed to others. Earlier, Detector Media talked about the message that Ukraine is a tool of the West to undermine Russian statehood.

Residents of the Russian-occupied part of the Kherson region receive SMS messages from supposedly Ukrainian military men asking them to tell them about the positions of the Russians. The press service of the Kakhovka city military administration on telegram urges not to provide information if one does not know the person personally, because “most likely these are provocations”. The message also noted that information about the movement of the enemy should be transmitted only through official chats and verified channels, and it should not yet been discussed the movement of Russian equipment over the phone, one shouldn’t get too close to the infidels, delete the history of correspondence with the bot and photos from the smartphone. The Ministry of Digital Affairs urges citizens to continue using the “Yevoroh” (There is an enemy) chat and report on Russian technology using it.