Social media users are circulating a screenshot that allegedly shows Tucker Carlson. Like, it reports the capture and imprisonment of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi. However, this image is a fabrication created using existing images of both men.

Fact-checkers from Reuters drew attention to it. A spokesman for Carlson told Reuters that the posts were fake and his name and image were used without his permission.

The screenshot appeared on social media with the caption: "SENSATION! TUCKER RELEASED VIDEO OF ZELENSKYI'S ARREST... HE IS TRANSPORTED TO BLACK DOLPHIN PRISON (RUSSIA) WITH A LARGE NUMBER OF SECURITY..." The fake screenshot contains an image of Zelenskyi holding a sign with the number “003856” along with the Ukrainian text “V.P. Holoborodko”. However, this is a scene from Zelenskyi's television series “Servant of the People”, which appeared in the first episode of the third season and was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of the series on April 9, 2019.

Zelenskyi then played the role of Vasyl Petrovych Holoborodko from 2015 to 2019 in the series “Servant of the People”, where, according to the plot, a school teacher is elected president of the country. The logo of Zelenskyi's film company Kvartal 95 Studio is visible in the modified image in the upper right corner. The image of Carlson, located at the bottom right of the fake screenshot, was taken from a video posted by his official social media account X on June 6, 2023. This video was the first episode of Carlson's new show on X.

The President's Office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Propagandists spread such fakes in order to personally discredit Zelenskyi, using an authoritative figure among conservative circles. Detector Media has already written about how Tucker Carlson repeats the messages of Russian propaganda in his own content.

The first episode of the Zelenskyi Unmasked project was recently released: Who is Volodymyr Zelenskyy? (“Zelenskyi without a mask: Who is Volodymyr Zelenskyi?”). It was brought to the attention of journalist Serhii Mamaiev and a detailed analysis on his YouTube channel “Special Projects of Serhii Mamaev”.

The series is hosted by Ben Swann, who calls himself an investigative journalist. But it is not so. Mamaiev found out that he was actually a television sports producer, and later a news journalist, producer and editor-in-chief of the FOX network affiliates and Russia Today America. Based on the released analysis, Detector Media presents the main messages consonant with Russian propaganda, which can be found within the first series of the project.

Volodymyr Zelenskyi did not know Ukrainian and came to power dishonestly

The authors of the film made many inaccuracies in the biography of the President of Ukraine, which indicates that the material was not carefully prepared. In particular, they also noted that Kryvyi Rih is located in the south of Ukraine, although the map that was inserted into the video refutes this. According to the creators of the project, Zelenskyi allegedly did not know Ukrainian at all before his presidency. However, in fact, he only did not use Ukrainian in everyday life.

In addition, the authors demonized both the creation of Kvartal 95, the transition of Kvartal to 1+1, and the series “Servant of the People”, the creation of the “Servant of the People” party and Zelenskyi’s participation in the presidential elections. Like, he is not who he claims to be.

The situation in Donbas is expected as it is historically a Russian region

The authors of the project repeated Russian propaganda cliches on Euromaidan and the war in Donbas from 2014. They deliberately did not mention the true reasons for the Revolution of Dignity and the shooting of students. The presenter also kept silent about the annexation of Crimea and Russia’s orchestration of the creation of the so-called LPR and DPR. The authors of the project do not talk about torture and executions of pro-Ukrainian activists in Donbas by Russians. Instead, all this is summed up with the message that Donbas is in fact a historically Russian region. However, Mamaiev notes that most of the residents of the eastern regions identified themselves as Ukrainians in the population census.

Zelensky is spreading ultranationalism in Ukraine

The presenter says that Zelenskyi allegedly betrayed his native Russian language and turned Ukrainian society towards ultra-nationalism. They say that discrimination against Russian-speaking Ukrainians is also evidenced by legislation restricting Russian music and literature. Allegedly, this was one of the reasons for the invasion. However, the authors do not mention that the Decrees on quotas on Ukrainian music and acts limiting the distribution of Russian literature came after the full-scale invasion.

Russia only wants to restore the USSR, and NATO and the USA really provoked it to attack Ukraine and sabotaged the peace process

The authors justify Russian aggression by saying that Russia simply wanted to rebuild the Soviet Union and presented this statement in a positive sense, as if what Ukraine is against looks strange. In addition, according to the presenter, it was the United States and NATO that provoked Russia into invading Ukraine, since NATO allegedly surrounded Russia on all sides. But even here the authors contradict themselves, since they show a map where NATO members indicate states that joined the Alliance after Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

Next, the authors tell how in the spring of 2022, Ukraine and Russia almost agreed on a peace agreement. However, according to the presenter, the peace fell apart allegedly because of the United States and Europe, which pushed Ukraine to continue the war. They say that it is because of them that Ukraine allegedly thwarted all agreements and continued repression within the country. However, in fact, the negotiations were stopped after the criminal actions of Russian troops in Bucha. And Russia calls “repression” any actions directed against violations of the law on cooperation with occupiers, deliberately dramatizing the situation.

Propagandists as project experts

A number of people who regularly play along with Russian propaganda provided their comments for the first episode. Among them is Andrii Telizhenko, a former Ukrainian diplomat who was a frequent guest on Medvedchuk’s channels, where he promoted relevant narratives. At one time, according to Mamaiev, he also tried to help promote the idea of then-President Trump, who supposedly Zelenskyi was collaborating with the US Democratic Party.

Another character in the project is Gonzalo Lira, about whose history we have written more than once before. The project repeats the story about the “illegality” of his detention. Like, in fact, he is in prison because of his criticism of Zelenskyi. However, the SBU, during Lira’s imprisonment, emphasized that the main charge for this was the justification of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Zelenskyi destroys religion in Ukraine

The authors of the project repeated the Russian message, complaining that Zelenskyi is trying to usurp religion in the state for himself, trying to delegalize the UOC-MP. However, they are silent about the fact that the priests of this denomination justified the invasion of Ukraine and aimed missiles at civilians. And not a word that Ukraine has its own church. The authors create the impression that Zelenskyi bans Orthodoxy in Ukraine as a whole, although this is not the case.

The United States has already made films about Ukraine, where they disseminated messages in tune with Russian propaganda. In particular, director Oliver Stone at one time began making films about dictators. In particular, in 2016 he published the work “Ukraine on Fire”, where he interviewed Medvedchuk. A year later, he recorded an interview with Putin.

Conservative media in the United States further spread skepticism regarding Ukraine, including through the spread of conspiracy theories. All this has a special context, given that the first impeachment of then US President Donald Trump was announced due to the phone call scandal with Volodymyr Zelenskyi. Since then, Trump fans have called the topic of Ukraine “toxic” and are trying in every possible way to reconcile Ukraine with Russia. This is clearly visible on Trump’s Truth Social, where we previously found a large amount of anti-Ukrainian rhetoric. This “information bubble” does not help Ukraine, and anti-Ukrainian messages are supported by the target audience of these media - recent polls from CBS News show that 61% of US citizens who identify as Republicans oppose assistance to Ukraine.

Propagandists use various conspiracy theories to justify Russian aggression against Ukraine. One such example is the idea of “gay propaganda” and the “blue mafia”. “Gay propaganda” or “homosexual propaganda” is a term used in religious circles to disparage the promotion of cultural acceptance and normalization of non-heterosexual orientations and relationships. They say that in Western countries there is a circle of gay elites - the “blue mafia”, which “forcibly” promotes the “superiority” of LGBT couples over heterosexual ones. Children allegedly become LGBT persons after viewing LGBT-related content. According to conspiracy theorists, such methods are used to reduce the world's population. Although the “blue mafia” theory initially concerned only showbiz and fashion, later conservative activists and especially Russia dragged it into politics.

The term “gay agenda” actually originates from the United States and is actively used in other countries with active anti-LGBTQ movements, such as Hungary and Uganda. It was made popular by a video series produced by California-based religious group Springs of Life Ministries in 1992. A series of these videos were circulated in many Christian organizations and spoke of “gay propaganda”.

Conservative activists and conspiracy theorists also include efforts to change government policies and laws regarding LGBT rights as gay propaganda. In particular, American conservative activists use the term to refer to changes in LGBT rights legislation, such as same-sex marriage and protection against discrimination. Russian propagandists took this into account and adjusted it to the local context. They say that liberal forces in the USA and the EU are forcing Ukraine to recognize LGBT couples as more important in the legal field than heterosexual ones, from which Russia supposedly has to save us. They say we cannot allow a future where LGBT couples have more rights than heterosexual couples.

Russia adapted these theories not only in its propaganda, but also in its legislation. In particular, on June 11, 2013, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a law prohibiting “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” among minors. This law supplements the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO RF) with an article providing for administrative liability for “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” among minors, and also makes changes to the federal law “On the protection of children from information harmful to their health and development”, according to which Information prohibited for distribution among children also includes information “promoting non-traditional sexual relationships”. In addition, the law introduces amendments similar to the law “On Basic Guarantees of the Rights of the Child in the Russian Federation”.

On November 30, 2023, Judge Oleg Nefedov of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation declared it an “extremist organization” and banned the “international public movement of LGBT people”. With this decision, the Supreme Court satisfied the claim of the Russian Ministry of Justice, sent on November 17, 2023. Since the beginning of Russian aggression against Ukraine, the condition of the LGBT community in the Russian Federation has deteriorated significantly. Thus, in 2022, a law was passed banning LGBT propaganda among adults, and in July 2023, a law banning transgender transition. According to human rights activists, the Russian authorities were thus trying to distract the conservative electorate from the failures in the war with Ukraine, strengthening homophobia and transphobia in society.

Sexual orientation (regardless of whether it is heterosexuality or homosexuality) is natural and does not depend on the work of the media, fashion, ideology or the activity of any social groups. Detector Media has repeatedly debunked absurd Russian fake news aimed at reinforcing the “gay propaganda” narrative.

Propagandists are trying to destabilize the situation in the world by supporting various conspiracy movements and using them as part of Russian aggression against Ukraine. Often, conspiracy theories are created based on popular figures. An example of this is the theory that American singer Taylor Swift is allegedly a Pentagon spy and that she “fights against disinformation” with her songs.

In January, on FOX NEWS' Jesse Watters Primetime, host Jesse Watters asked viewers how they thought Swift became so popular. Noting that he had no evidence, he theorized: “About four years ago, the Pentagon's psy-ops team was considering turning Taylor Swift into a tool during a NATO meeting. What kind of tool? A psy-op to combat online disinformation”. He called her a psy-op, a person secretly involved in psychological operations, usually hired by the government, military or police to influence the beliefs, emotions and behavior of the masses. Watters showed a video of someone talking about Swift's influence, commenting: “Yes, this is real. The Pentagon's psychological task force suggested that NATO turn Taylor Swift into a tool to help the Biden administration”. The presenter repeatedly disseminated narratives about the war in Ukraine, consonant with, for example, calling it a “proxy war”.

In fact, the video was taken from an academic conference on disinformation organized by NATO in 2019. The woman who spoke—Alicia Marie Bargar—was not a Pentagon official or associated with NATO, but an engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Bargar told Business Insider that her words were taken out of context. She discussed cybersecurity challenges and used Swift as “a random example of a famous person to explain the concept of social media analytics to an audience”.

A Pentagon spokesman commented on the theory to Politico noting, “With this conspiracy theory, we're going to shake it off”, a reference to Taylor Swift's song Shake It off.

This theory did not come out of thin air. Right-wing commentators in the United States blamed Swift for the key defeats of Republican politicians. Although Swift did not endorse any candidate in this election, she publicly supported Biden in 2020 and reminded her fans to vote in 2022.

After Swift was named a Person of the Year 2023 by the TIME Magazine's, similar allegations resurfaced from conservative commentators that she was part of a larger election conspiracy. Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller said Swift's fame “is not organic”. Far Hand activist Laura Loomer said Swift is “who Democrats are counting on to interfere in the 2024 presidential election”. Anonymous telegram channels that spread pro-Russian rhetoric also disseminate messages with a similar message.

Russian propagandists use this theory to try to interfere in domestic American politics and neutralize the influence of American popular culture in Europe. In addition, in this way they support people committed to the Russian worldview in American political circles.

For years, propagandists have been trying to explain current events with conspiracy theories, trying to shift responsibility for problems with real political actors to imaginary “world governments”. Some of these theories go back to the century before last, such as the well-known falsification of the late 19th - early 20th centuries called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

This text was first published in 1903 in the Russian Empire, although it existed in handwritten versions earlier. It outlines the types of plans of a certain Jewish organization to establish world domination. The real authorship of the text is unknown; certain parts of it were copied from ancient pamphlets, thus it is a compilation of conspiracy theories of the anti-Semitic ideas of that time.

Why did such a “document” gain popularity in Russia? The main theses of the imaginary plan of the Jews are the use of various ideologies, from Nietzscheanism to communism, to undermine the “traditional” foundations of society that interfere with the establishment of world domination. The main enemies of Jews and Masons, according to the “Protocols”, are the institutions of the Catholic papacy and the Russian autocracy. This view of political and social processes suited Russian monarchist conservatives, who defended the tsar as the only real obstacle to the “satanic forces” to seize power.

Modern Russian propaganda does not use the Protocols, although conspiratorial anti-Semitism in general often appears even in the expressions of senior representatives of the Putin regime, not to mention more marginal propagandists. However, it can be noted that the approach of conspiracy theories has not changed. Also, modern “evil”, from Ukrainian “Nazism” to Western “cultural Marxism”, seeks to destroy “everything good” that exists in the world, and the only one who “resists” this is the Russian Tsar, who is now called the president. Now, it seems that instead of the conditional Jews of the world, a conditional “global government” threatens the world.

With this primitive technique, propagandists strive to achieve two goals. Firstly, shift responsibility for public problems from real representatives of power, primarily the same tsar-president, who has been in power for decades, to someone else. Secondly, to rally the population around the “traditional” authorities, because they are supposedly the only ones who can protect against growing problems (in fact, inspired by this government). However, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion did not help the Russian Tsar and his propagandists retain power. From their example, one can clearly see that conspiracy theories are not capable of resolving social contradictions, and authoritarian regimes often fall suddenly and harshly, primarily for their leaders.

Tucker Carlson, a fired FOX News host and pro-Russian propagandist, has tweeted the first episode of his new show. In it, he claims that the Ukrainians blew up the dam at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, and the American government controls the media and hides important stories from the Americans. The video was distributed among others by Elon Musk, and as of now it has already been viewed more than 50 million times. Detector Media singled out the main propaganda messages in the video.

1 Ukraine blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant

The TV presenter claims that Ukraine, at the direction of Zelenskyi, blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. His argument is that if Volodymyr Putin ordered it to be done, it would be absurd because it harms Russia itself. Carlson is ironic that, despite the fact that everyone is used to thinking that Ukraine does not have the resources to do this, this does not negate the fact that it can do it.

Ukrainian members of the government and public organizations, in particular the organizations of the coalition Ukraine. The Fifth Morning claims that it was Russia that purposefully undermined the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. The destruction occurred from the inside as a result of the detonation of explosives. Ukraine has no motive to destroy the dam, especially now.

2. The US should stop supporting Zelenskyi as he is doing bad things

Further, the TV presenter begins to be ironic towards the President of Ukraine, calling him “almost a saint”. He criticizes the information noise around Zelenskyi and his support among Western countries. In addition, Carlson hints that Zelenskyi is allegedly the real evil in the war against Ukraine, but it is easy for everyone to say that Russia is committing crimes. The TV presenter reproaches the President for choosing clothes for official meetings and calls him rat-shaped, almost accusing him of destroying Christian values. Therefore, according to Carlson, the United States should stop supporting Ukraine.

Although such statements are the subjective opinion of the TV presenter, among them there are objective accusations against Zelenskyi. However, reality proves otherwise – it is Russia and its army that daily commit war crimes against Ukrainians, including the forced deportation of children, the mistreatment of prisoners of war and the destruction of civilian infrastructure. Even the example of the dam blowing is indicative - while in the settlements controlled by Ukraine, people are being evacuated and given the necessary assistance, in the flooded temporarily occupied territories, the so-called “local authorities” have left civilians to fend for themselves with tragedy.

3. The American government is hiding “really important topics” from Americans due to “puppet media”

Trying to explain the appearance of his new show on Twitter, Carlson accuses US President Joe Biden and his team of censorship and silence on important topics. In particular, he appeals to the fact that the “puppet media” allegedly too actively covers the aggression against Ukraine, the problems of broadcasters and the topic of global warming, so the Americans do not know what is really happening in the world. The TV presenter compares the situation with freedom of speech in the last years of the USSR, recalling foreign radio stations listening “under the covers”. According to him, this new show will be analogous to those stations so that Americans know about “really important things”. For example, a former American intelligence officer allegedly announced the shooting down of an unidentified flying object with unknown creatures on board.

Tucker Carlson deliberately substitutes the concept, reinforcing the message about “conservative censorship”, which is quite popular in certain circles. Like, corporations deliberately block conservative figures just because they have conservative views. However, in fact, most of these cases of blocking the accounts of conservative figures are related to the fact that they disseminated information dangerous to the lives of social network users. For example, when they publicly spoke out against vaccines, called the coronavirus a global conspiracy, or called on people to protest on January 6, 2021 to take over the Capitol by force.

By the story of the former intelligence officer and the UFO, Carlson means the testimonies of David Grush, which he gave to NewsNation yesterday. The man claims that the US government allegedly has a special secret program to collect UFOs and the remnants of persons on board. Tucker Carlson condemns the fact that many American media like The New York Times have not published any material on this topic, so it can be considered hushed up. A Google search shows that a number of leading conservative media and tabloids not only in the US but also in the UK wrote about this “sensation”. It is currently difficult to verify the credibility of Grush's testimony, but both the FBI and NASA have UFO pages on their official websites.

We recall that Tucker Carlson regularly distributes Russian propaganda messages. Previously, he claimed that Volodymyr Zelenskyi is a “Biden puppet”, Ukraine is “not a democracy”, and Volodymyr Putin is “America's true friend”.

Such rhetoric around the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant is beneficial for Russia and resembles the situation with the loss of the Boeing-777 flight MH17, since it dilutes responsibility and creates ambiguity. In fact, Carlson is helping Russia justify its aggression against Ukraine, confusing foreign audiences about Russia's role in this war, and further destabilizing American domestic politics.

In the previous texts of the section, we explained the theory of the “new world order” and its anti-Semitic influx. Another theory is often associated with the theory of the new world order - pizzagate (in the likeness of the name Watergate - the scandal that led to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon). According to it, the US Democratic Party and “liberal Hollywood” are conspiring to traffic children for the sexual whims of the elite. Despite the fact that the theory was officially debunked by the Washington police, its supporters still believe that several restaurants in the city are unofficial “meeting places” of the elite, where “juvenile victims” are taken for pedophilia.

The theory arose in 2016, when hackers allegedly gained access to the correspondence of one of the leaders of the campaign program of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Like, it contained the names of various high-ranking party officials, the addresses of the aforementioned restaurants and the names of dishes (for example, pizza and hot dogs). According to conspiracy theorists, these are code names that mask the actions of a pedophilic nature and their victims. The theory quickly spread on social media and on image boards such as 4chan and Reddit, and even led to a shooting near one of the Washington restaurants featured in the correspondence. However, it received a new wave of popularity in 2020 after the release of the music video for the Justin Bieber song Yummy, where conspiracy theorists saw hidden meanings associated with the “joys of the rich”.  Fragments of the clip with explanations of these messages became viral on TikTok, and the theory itself became the basis for the creation of QAnon. Now its members associate all members of the Democratic Party with pedophilia. The current president of the state, Joe Biden, is no exception.

Russia also refers to this theory in its propaganda. For example, one can find messages that equate almost every Biden movement or word in children with manifestations of pedophilia. In addition, one can often see panic in the media spreading pro-Russian rhetoric that the Democratic Party is allegedly trying by all means to legalize pedophilia and drags Ukraine into all this. Propagandists and American conservative figures often pin the image of a pedophile on Joe Biden also because of the alleged illegal sexual relations of his son Hunter Biden with minors. In particular, this is due to the “Hunter Biden laptop showers”, when hackers allegedly gained access to the cloud storage of his device and leaked photos and videos to the network in which he allegedly has sex with underage girls. They were tried to be used against his father during the election campaign before the presidential elections in 2020 and were actively distributed in the pro-Russian media. Since Hunter Biden's past is closely connected with Ukraine, these reports did not bypass the reproaches that Ukrainian justice is still allegedly keeping a pedophile at large, because it cannot go against “the will of its overseas masters”.

Propagandists use it in their rhetoric to justify their war against the Western value system. Like, Russia is fighting for true spiritual purity, because America is rotten through and through, and the victims of this are children. In addition, in this way, they want to devalue Biden's help for Ukraine. It seems that with the war he covers up the crimes of himself and his family, and therefore he always helps. It is also important for Russia to use existing methods to destabilize the domestic political situation in the United States in order to persuade the public to support its policies. They want to distrust the “pedophile president” and shift the political balance in favor of the “actor”, which, in their opinion, will be more favorable to Russia.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, propagandists have begun to explain more and more things using conspiracy theories. As a consequence, even the smartest people can be questioned by conspiracy theories in today's turbulent world. That is why, in this new section, Detector Media will briefly explain the history and essence of individual conspiracy theories. We will tell you how and for what purpose they use them in Russian propaganda.

A conspiracy theory is an attempt to explain events or situations with the help of a conspiracy allegedly created by an influential political or financial group, even if there is an official and confirmed version of events. The term has a negative connotation, and the phenomenon of conspiracy theories has become more important, especially in the context of Russia's war against Ukraine.

One of the conspiracy theories that is now emerging within the framework of Russian propaganda is the “new world order” theory. The phrase “world government” or “global government” indicates the use of the “new world order” theory, as they are the more popular name for the theory. It is not new and originated in the United States in the twentieth century. The theory acquired its modern forms in the 90s, when it became the basis for the work of American right-wing radical and conservative Christian forces. The theory of the “new world order” acquired a new scope at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, when it penetrated into popular culture, thanks to which it became widespread.

The theory has a number of branches, but in this article we will focus on the apocalyptic direction. According to it, the world is led by an allegedly totalitarian global government that wants to either destroy the world completely or leave only the “golden billion” on it. That is, a billion people who have passed all the tests. According to propagandists, the war against Ukraine is one of those tests. In the case of this theory, “stages” are important, because according to the position of conspiracy theorists, the “world government” destroys humanity gradually. For example, on anonymous telegram channels spreading pro-Russian rhetoric, one can see messages that the war in Ukraine is just a new stage in the “world government” plan to destroy humanity. Its echo could also be heard from the lips of the parishioners of the UOC-MP. Representatives of the confession often say that Western elites are destroying Ukraine.

Also, over time, opinions about who is in the “world government” have changed. The following versions are popular among conspiracy theorists:

the world government is the UN and the EU (in particular, black helicopters are considered one of the symbols of this theory in Western culture, since, according to conspiracy theorists, the world government is preparing to seize the territory of the United States (or any other country, given the target audience of the source)) with the help of UN peacekeepers arriving on them);

it is a corporation that includes the richest people on the planet;

this is a satanic force led by the Antichrist and bringing the end of the world closer (according to conspiracy theorists, the role of the Antichrist can be played by the last Pope, the President of the EU, the Secretary General of the UN, one of the heads of a Muslim state, the head of an international corporation, etc.).

In addition, the “world government” can be made up of Illuminati (Illuminati branch), Masonic (Masonic branch) or Jews (Zionist branch).

The theory has received a lot of criticism from Christians in the West because they believe it cultivates a “spirit of fear” and is not backed up by biblical texts.

Propagandists use it in their rhetoric to cause panic among people and doubts about what is happening around. In fact, in this way they want to “hush” the information space and shift the responsibility for the actions of the aggressor to a third force. Like, Russia has nothing to do with it, these are all the tricks of the “world government” that wants to destroy everyone. In the countries of the post-Soviet space, conspiracy theories associated with politics work even better, considering the lack of public access to information about political processes in the past.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, propagandists have begun to explain more and more things using conspiracy theories. As a consequence, even the smartest people can be questioned by conspiracy theories in today's turbulent world. That is why, in this new section,  Detector Media will briefly explain the history and essence of individual conspiracy theories. We will talk on how and for what purpose they use them in Russian propaganda.

Appeal to authority is a propaganda tactic in which propagandists resort to quoting famous people or experts in a particular field to promote messages. Like, if the argument is in parallel with the statement of an authoritative person, then it is true.

Russian propaganda systematically quotes Western pro-Russian politicians or public figures to promote disinformation narratives. Russian propaganda presents the pro-Russian position of an individual as a generalized public opinion in a particular country.

For example, in order to create the illusion that even in the United States, more and more people “support Russia” or “understand Putin”, or “believe in the victorious power of the Russian army”, they use the American former military. One such expert is Colonel Douglas McGregor, ex-advisor of the head of the Pentagon. In 2014, McGregor supported the annexation of Crimea and spoke on RT, where he claimed that the inhabitants of Crimea were Russians, not Ukrainians. From the first day of the full-scale invasion, MacGregor predicted an imminent defeat for Ukraine. At the end of December 2022, Russian media quoted McGregor as saying that “almost nothing will be left of Ukraine” in the near future.

Another expert is Doug Bandow, an American scholar and columnist for The American Conservative. His quotes were used to promote messages about censorship and lies in the Ukrainian information space. In an op-ed, Bandow claimed that the Center for Counteracting Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine had formed a list of “naughty Americans who refuse to dance to the tune of the Zelenskyi and Ukrainian governments” (i.e., a list of pro-Russian experts). To fight with the Ukrainian Center, according to Bandow, the United States should also create a center to counter disinformation. In fact, The American Conservative has also repeatedly published materials in tune with Russian propaganda narratives.

Russian propaganda uses the Polish fake publication Niezależny Dziennik Polityczny (an independent political magazine) both to spread Russian propaganda in Poland and to quote the supposedly Polish publication in the Russian and Ukrainian information spaces. As Polish journalists found out, most of the publications on the website of this publication were literally copied from other portals; thus, the impression of a full-fledged media is formed. The publication's own materials are Russian propaganda and lies. For example, it was this publication that published fabricated statements by American generals that the Poles were drunkards, drug addicts, and thieves. Most of the texts are written in poor Polish, saturated with Russians, there are impossible language constructions in the texts. The editor of the publication, Adam Kaminsky, is a fictitious person. Instead of his photograph, a portrait of the Lithuanian traumatologist Andrius Zhukauskas was used. Among other things, this fake publication was used to promote messages that NATO is “supplying scrap to Ukraine”,that is, old, ineffective weapons, in order to “clean out warehouses” and “recycle old trash”.

Pro-Russian telegram channels write about this. Like, despite censorship in the Ukrainian information space, the United States “considered” Ukrainian disinformation. Allegedly, Ukraine so “often lies” to the United States that it is time to fight it. The messages also link to an article in The American Conservative. This is manipulation.

Russian propaganda presents the proposal of the pro-Russian American expert Doug Bendow as an official initiative. Moreover, the article in The American Conservative is Bandow's emotional response to the work of the Center for Counteracting Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, which drew attention to his pro-Russian position. In the article, Bandow writes that the Center has compiled a list “over those who don’t go to bed  humming” Zelenskyi and Ukrainian governments. To combat the Ukrainian Center, according to Bandow, the United States should create its own Disinformation Countermeasures Center. It was this thesis that Russian propaganda used.

Actually, The American Conservative has also previously published pro-Russian materials, including that the Republican Party did not live up to American expectations due to support for Ukraine.

Russian propaganda systematically uses foreign experts with a pro-Russian stance to promote Russian disinformation messages and narratives and give them greater prominence.

Russian media and pro-Russian telegram channels spread messages that allegedly the United States admitted the “failure” through Ukraine with reference to American media. They say that the Republicans in the United States are not able to resist the so-called “woke culture” (increased attention to issues of social inequality), their leader in the Senate supports pumping Ukraine with weapons. Allegedly, this casts doubt on the need for the existence of such a party in the United States. This is manipulation.

As The Insider fact-checkers note, Russian propaganda refers to a column of The American Conservative. Its author is journalist and writer Rod Dreher, who has built a career on scandalous homophobic and racist statements. Moreover, he now lives in Hungary, works at the Danube Institute and receives a scholarship from the government of Viktor Orban.

Journalists from The New York Times analyzed the email archive of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VDTRK), broken by hackers, and found that Russian TV channels, in particular Russia 1 and Russia 24, used materials sent to them by the FSB. The entire dump has a volume of 750 gigabytes, the vast majority of which is related to preparations for the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the start of the war - the correspondence took place from January to March 2022. The researchers were able to confirm the addresses of the mailboxes, as well as the faces of the people who received the letters.

As the journalists found out, Russian propagandists created content on topics that were discussed in letters from the FSB and the Russian Ministry of Defense. In the letters, the FSB representatives called the employees of the Russian channels “colleagues”. One of the materials sent by the FSB officers through Russian channels is the story of a woman who claimed that the Mariupol Drama Theater was allegedly blown up by the Ukrainian military.

In addition, in order to give viewers the impression of numerous “victories” of the Russian army and politics in general, they used materials from conservative Western media, in particular Fox News, Chinese media publications with beneficial narratives, and also used little-known accounts on Telegram and YouTube, which also made it possible to create a distorted picture of Russian “greatness”.

The Russian propaganda media spread this thesis. Reports say that the USA will soon be fighting Russia on the side of Ukraine. The authors of the texts refer to the words of the former head of the American CIA, David Petraeus, that the West may intervene in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Such an opinion was allegedly expressed by Petraeus in an article on The American Conservative website by Douglas McGregor, a former adviser to the US Secretary of Defense. But it's manipulation. In fact, the USA and NATO have repeatedly emphasized that they won't take a direct part in Russia's war against Ukraine since Ukraine isn't a member of NATO.

The assumption of former CIA director David Petraeus about the participation of other countries in the war on the side of Ukraine isn't based on the official statements of NATO countries and the USA in particular. According to the StopFake fact-checkers, Petraeus said this could only happen if Russia took "shocking and terrifying" escalation steps. However, in this statement, there wasn't a single word about the fact that the Armed Forces are in a critical state. By spreading such messages, Russian propaganda again tries to show that Russia in Ukraine is fighting not with Ukraine but with Western states and associations.

The Russian media once again distorted in their own way the content of an article in the American edition of The American Conservative. They write that, according to an article titled “Winners and Losers in the Ukraine War” by founding editor Patrick J. Buchanan, America is responsible for the escalation in Eastern Europe when a number of countries were accepted into NATO, as well as for the confrontation in Ukraine. StopFake writes about this manipulation.

In the original article, there is not a word about the recognition of the fallacy of American assistance to Ukraine. In his material, Buchanan reflects on who can be considered the winner and who will be the loser in the war in Ukraine. He further writes that a new Cold War has been established between the US and Russia and raises the question of whether it is in the interests of the US and how successful foreign policy was then if the Cold War began again.

The Russian media once again used quotes from the text of a foreign publication in order to fit them to their key messages. The text does not say that the United States regrets the support provided to Ukraine, and the only quote given by the propagandists is inaccurate.

This is not the first time that the Russian media have distorted the content of what was written in order to demonstrate the decline in support for Ukraine by Western partners and the United States in particular. Thus, they personify the propaganda cliché about the lack of unity of the Western countries in relation to Ukraine and the war that Russia unleashed.

The new British Prime Minister Liz Truss has become the object of undisguised discredit from Russian media representatives and authorities. They declare its total incompetence, mediocrity, Russophobia and express skepticism about the ability to overcome the energy crisis and food inflation as a result of anti-Russian sanctions adopted by Britain.

The media also cite Russian dictator Putin, who allegedly said that the procedure for electing the head of state in Britain is undemocratic, since it takes place within the framework of the ruling party, and not with the participation of the people.

Such reports are trying to show in a bad light an unfriendly politician, which means that they indicate expectations of tough actions against Russia and in support of Ukraine in the confrontation with Moscow.

After Johnson's resignation, propaganda claimed that Britain's attitude towards Ukraine could well change, because he allegedly did not have support precisely because of his actions against Ukraine.

However, Liz Truss has already promised  “to become Ukraine's biggest friend” and declared that “Putin will fail and face the strategic defeat in Ukraine, and Russia will be limited in the future”.

Liz Truss took office on September 05, after winning the election to lead the Conservative Party against her opponent Rishi Sunak, with 81,326 votes to 60,399.

At the beginning of May, the Conservative Movement group, in particular, published information on Facebook that the United States allegedly refused to accept Ukrainian refugees and queues of Ukrainians were already gathering at the borders, whom Washington did not care about. The reports also added that Zelensky does not respond to such actions by the U.S. However, as Myth Detector Project fact checkers write, the claim that the United States has refused to accept Ukrainian refugees is false, and the manipulation is reinforced by the fact that since April 25, the United States changed the rules for accepting refugees from Ukraine, which caused a temporary delay at the border. "Ukrainian refugees need to fill out a special application, considered on a case-by-case basis, and find a sponsor to fund their stay," the fact checkers wrote. However, this is not a refusal to accept refugees from Ukraine. As a reminder, Russia has already repeatedly spread a similar thesis that Ukrainian refugees are refused to be accepted in EU countries. In particular, in Poland and Germany. Propagandists also spread fakes about Ukrainian refugees allegedly committing crimes in those countries. Thus, by reporting that the U.S. and other countries are refusing refugees from Ukraine, Russian propaganda seeks to discredit allies in the Russia-Ukraine war. Read more.