The Kremlin promotes disinformation through the Nigerian publication THE NATION, the Senegalese SENE NEWS, and the Egyptian El Mostaqbal. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council.

• THE NATION, for example, published an article about the alleged sale by the Office of the President of Ukraine of land to the Soros Foundation in order to bury chemical waste.

• SENE NEWS publishes “investigative articles” about Ukraine with links to anonymous sources or fictitious journalists.

• El Mostaqbal quotes Russian officials accusing Ukraine and spreading narratives about “biological laboratories” or that “Ukraine is a US puppet”, for example.

Considering that the fakes on the analyzed resources have not received significant publicity among the international community, unlike the Russian information space, we can conclude that Russian propaganda uses these media to increase the confidence of the Russian domestic population in false information. Like, “even foreign media are writing about this!”.

You can read more about how Russia promotes its narratives through African media in a joint study by the Center for Countering Disinformation and the Molfar OSINT agency.

The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reports that the Kremlin has intensified its disinformation campaign against Ukraine in the Middle East.

Russia is intensively using its diplomatic missions and intelligence network, and various means of propaganda.

The task of the Kremlin’s next hybrid special operation:

● justify a war of conquest;

● discredit Ukraine and Western countries;

● impose unacceptable terms of negotiations;

● improve your own position in the region;

● achieve a reduction in the economic and political pressure that Moscow experiences due to aggression and the commission of war crimes.

Employees of the Russian embassy in Egypt, for example, received instructions from the Kremlin to hold a series of meetings under diplomatic cover to spread disinformation about the war and carry out recruitment activities.

Also, as part of this operation, the Russians are sending propaganda materials to the embassies of other states in Cairo, which justify waging war against Ukraine.

It is, in particular, about two “documents” entitled “On the role of the West in the conflict in Ukraine” and “On the situation around Ukraine”. These materials present a pro-Putin version of the history of Ukraine since the collapse of the USSR. And Russia, of course, is presented as a victim.

The key idea that Russia is promoting in the Middle East is that there is no alternative to the scenario it has imposed for ending the war.

Russia is silent about the situation in the Belgorod and Kursk regions - the Putin regime is not able to ensure security in the border areas. Russian authorities are hiding attempts by residents there to evacuate on their own, and are also blocking the evacuation.

That is, propaganda is doing everything possible to hide the truth about the security situation in the country. Russia’s goal is to use the population as a “human shield” and hold “elections” at any cost. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council.

Propaganda resources are disseminating information that the Ukrainian Armed Forces, allegedly with the support of up to 300 “foreign mercenaries”, tried to invade the Belgorod region of Russia from the area of Odnorobivka, Nekhoteievka and Sidoroshyno. In asserting this, propagandists refer to the Russian Ministry of Defense, as well as to the corresponding statement by Putin.

In fact, this information is not true. They write about this in the Center for Strategic Communications under the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. Units of the Freedom of Russia Legion (LSR), the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVK) and the Siberia Battalion entered Russian territory in the Hraivoronskyi district of the Belgorod region and Tiotkino in the Kursk region on the morning of March 12. They consist of ethnic Russian emigrants, prisoners and former Russian military personnel who voluntarily stood up to defend Ukraine.

GUR representative Andrii Yusov in a comment to the Suspilne (Public) stated that on the territory of Russia these units operate as “independent structures and organizations”. They consist of Russian citizens and therefore, accordingly, “are at home”.

Russian propagandists claim that the confiscation of frozen Russian assets to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine will lead to inevitable economic collapse. This message gained traction in early 2024, as proposals to use these assets for reconstruction efforts in Ukraine became more common.

Specialists from the EUvsDisinfo project drew attention to it. They explain that while there is heated debate about the advisability of avoiding this decision, its critics argue that it could violate the principle of state sovereignty and undermine confidence in Western financial institutions, arguments made by propagandists are a serious exaggeration.

Russia has said that if its assets are confiscated, it will respond by confiscating Western assets on its territory and resorting to other economic actions. However, this will not lead to the consequences of fearful propagandists. The dissemination of this message aims to question the actions of the West and try to stop these processes.

A team of propagandists from Kyrienko, the first deputy head of Putin’s administration, was involved in the Russian special operation Maidan-3 (M3). This is stated by the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, Lieutenant Andrii Kovalenko.

Also involved in the implementation of the special operation are the Russian special services - the Foreign Intelligence Service and the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, which are responsible for creating profiles on TikTok, Russian channels on Telegram, as well as bot farms from which disinformation is spread.

Moreover, Medvedchuk and his project “The Other Ukraine” have been added to this special operation, which “uses individual odious pro-Russian characters with Ukrainian passports working for Russia”, notes Andrii Kovalenko.

Let us recall that the Intelligence Committee under the President of Ukraine previously revealed the plan of the Russian special operation “M3”, the budget of which was $1.5 billion and the goal of which was to destabilize the situation inside Ukraine.

• Read also: During the spring of 2024, the Russian information special operation Maidan-3 will reach its climax - The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine

To promote their narratives and undermine the situation in Ukraine, Russians are massively purchasing and creating channels on Telegram and other social networks. Representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate Andrii Yusov said this on Radio Svoboda (Liberty).

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine writes that in order to destabilize and influence the socio-political situation in Ukraine, the Kremlin is taking the following actions:

• to achieve the goals of promoting Russian narratives and destabilizing the situation in Ukraine, a massive purchase and creation of telegram channels is being carried out;

• bot farms are being created that amplify Russian rhetoric on social networks;

• The GUR has lists of people whom Moscow can attract to disseminate Russian narratives and influence the socio-political situation, but their data has not yet been disclosed;

• narratives are disseminated both in Ukraine and abroad.

We urge you to be careful and trust only verified sources of information.

Russian propagandists are spreading information that the son of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, supports Russia. The so-called “ataman of the Cossack society of Australia” Semen Boikov recorded a video from the Russian Consulate General in Sydney, in which Ivan Syrskyi, allegedly the son of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, “congratulated the Russian army on the defeat of the Ukrainian military in Avdiivka”.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Security analyzed this information. In fact, Ivan Syrskyi, who became the “hero” of the video, is not the son of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He is the son of Oleksandr Syrskyi's ex-wife from her other marriage. The commander-in-chief did not adopt Ivan, and broke up with his mother back in 2009.

The ex-wife of Oleksandr Syrskyi left with her children and new husband for Australia 14 years ago. Colonel General Syrskyi does not maintain any relations with her family. The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council has already written about this.

In this case, propagandists seek to discredit Oleksandr Syrskyi. In addition, the purpose of such stuffing is to demotivate Ukrainians and make them despair of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Previously, in the Newspeak section, we wrote about how and why the word “virus”  was again remembered in Russia after the appointment of Oleksandr Syrskyi to the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

On the eve of the presidential elections in Russia, the occupation “administrations” and propagandists are promoting the message that “85% of the population in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine supports Putin”. The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council writes about this.

The Russians also sent special detachments to the occupied territories of Ukraine to create the appearance of supporting Putin. Their task is to oversee the falsification of ballots and monitor the work of the so-called “election commissions”.

One can take part in illegal “elections” in enslaved territories with either a Russian or Ukrainian passport, ID card or other identity document. And this indicates the failure of forced passportization in the occupied territories of Ukraine. This was reported by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. At the same time, this is another tool of the Russian special services to identify “unreliable” Ukrainians.

This statement was made by Putin during an interview with pro-Russian journalist Tucker Carlson on February 6, 2024. Like, “Ukrainians still feel like Russians, and in this sense, what is happening is to a certain extent an element of civil war”.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Security denied this information. In fact, the Russian-Ukrainian war is by no means “civil”, because its participants have been citizens of different states for many years.

Yes, Russians really live in Ukraine and some of them are defenders of the Ukrainian state. However, this fact alone destroys the propaganda narrative about the alleged “persecution of Russians” or that ethnic Russians in Ukraine are “waiting for their liberation” by Russia.

Russian propaganda continues to deliberately nourish the narrative of “civil war” and “protection of the rights of Russian speakers”, starting with the occupation of Crimea and the Russian war in Donbas in 2014. The Kremlin sees this as an element of justification for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Russian media are actively distorting the decision of the International Court of Justice, adopted on January 31. Propagandists said that the Court rejected all of Kyiv's demands. Pro-Kremlin “experts” also claim that the Court’s decision supposedly confirms that “Russia honestly fulfilled its obligations to cooperate in the fight against the financing of terrorism”, and the Court itself “refused” to recognize Russia as an “aggressor state”. However, this is manipulation.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that Ukraine, as a plaintiff, did not demand that the International Court of Justice recognize Russia as an aggressor, therefore all propaganda statements about this are disinformation. The court considered the case not on whether Russia is an aggressor state, but on whether it finances terrorism and promotes racial discrimination in the occupied Ukrainian territories. In particular, Ukraine accused Russia of violating the Conventions for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the Prohibition of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. We are talking about the beginning of Russia’s occupation of parts of the Donetsk, Luhansk regions and Crimea in 2014. The lawsuit did not directly address a full-scale Russian invasion in 2022. On January 31, 2024, the International Court of Justice announced its decision on this claim. The court indeed rejected most of the Ukrainian arguments, among which was the payment of compensation to Ukraine. But he admitted that Russia violated the provisions of both Conventions. Thus, Russia is, at the highest possible level, officially recognized as a state violating international law. Although the Court rejected most of Ukraine's claims that Russia financed terrorism, this decision in no way confirms the “honesty of Russia”, as Russian propaganda claims. The court ruled that Russia refused to investigate allegations that funds were flowing from Russia to Ukraine for possible terrorist financing.

In terms of racial discrimination, Ukraine focused on accusations against Russia of committing illegal actions against the Crimean Tatars, the Mejlis, culture and religion. However, Ukraine’s arguments regarding the recognition of violations by Russia in Crimea of the right to assembly and freedom of speech, as well as Russia’s participation in the persecution, abductions and murders of Crimeans, did not satisfy the Court. However, it ruled that Russia had banned teaching in Ukrainian since its occupation of Crimea in 2014, limiting the rights of Ukrainians and thus violating the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The decision also states that Russia, with its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, violated the Court’s 2017 decision, which prohibited any action that could “worsen or prolong the dispute before the Court or complicate its resolution”. According to the Court, these actions “seriously undermined the basis of mutual trust and cooperation and thus made the resolution of the dispute more difficult”.

It should be noted that Russia manipulated the provisions of the Court’s decision in its favor, although previously Russian propaganda actively tried to discredit not only this international body, but also a number of other institutions. In particular, by spreading such manipulations, propagandists want to create the false impression that the international community has recognized Russia’s actions as lawful.

Pro-Russian resources disseminate information that after the “coup d’etat” of 2014 in Ukraine, people who were supporters of peace negotiations with Russia were killed. In asserting this, propagandists refer to Putin, who made a corresponding statement.

In fact, this information is not true, write the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. There was no coup in Ukraine in 2014. Propaganda uses this expression as a revolution of dignity, since Russia cannot come to terms with the strength and determination of Ukrainians in the struggle for independence. Then, as today, Ukrainians defended the European vector of development, democratic values, their rights and freedom.

There was no extermination of Ukrainians who sought dialogue with Russia. Proof of this can be the fact that before the start of a full-scale war, pro-Russian political parties functioned in Ukraine. Moreover, 38 pro-Russian politicians from the “Opposition platform — for life” still owe mandates. Pro-Kremlin media were and are also in Ukraine. Now there are simply clickbaits and manipulations, including about “internal problems of Ukraine”, but after the start of the great war they stopped quoting Russian disinformation, and obvious denim in the interests of Russians disappeared from them.

In the end, there can be no talk of any “peaceful relations between Russia and Ukraine”,  since in 2014 Russia annexed Crimea and started a war in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Russian propaganda once again accuses Ukraine of being unprepared for negotiations, but the reason for the refusal is the lack of trust in Russia, because it has repeatedly violated agreements.

• Read also: Russia has always strived for peace, but Ukraine does not want to “agree”.

Pro-Kremlin media are spreading information that Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said that it is necessary to “kill” all Russian passport holders living in the countries of the European Union. It's a lie.

The VoxCheck analysts analyzed the case and found out that the prime minister did not call for killing people with Russian citizenship at all. Experts add that the Kremlin’s minions manipulated one of Kaja Kallas’ quotes:

“In a situation where a person’s acquisition of Russian citizenship is a clear signal of support for terrorism and Russian actions against Estonia and our allies, it is certainly necessary to consider the person’s suitability for life in a human rights-respecting democratic country”.

The question is whether a person can function in European society and not threaten people's lives. Moreover, the Prime Minister of Estonia says: such a decision may indicate that, if necessary, a person (who has received Russian citizenship and lives in Estonia) is ready to join the Russian army and commit crimes against Ukraine and Ukrainians.

She also assured that the official position of the Estonian authorities is to look for ways to deport persons who decide to obtain Russian citizenship.

An information attack in the form of mass SMS messaging is aimed at Ukrainians located in different countries of the world. The messages were created in the style of Lubianka linguists: next to the cliché about the need to work together “to revive Kyiv  Rus to harm our enemies” there are phrases like “take care of yourself and your loved ones” or “save the lives of people” - Russian propaganda and threat in one sentence.

The Main Intelligence Directorate notes that in addition to the provocative content with a call to help Moscow expel “American Satanists” from the “original Russian land”,  Kremlin intelligence officers add the cynical one: “from Russia with love”.

The purpose of this information attack is to intimidate, demoralize and disorganize Ukrainian citizens. If you receive such messages, we urge you to ignore them and think critically.

This information is disseminated by pro-Russian resources. Russian propaganda refers to an interview with the head of the Servant of the People faction, Davyd Arakhamiia, who allegedly said that Ukraine could have stopped the war by agreeing to the neutral, non-bloc status proposed by Russia. However, representatives of Ukraine “rejected peace” and “doomed hundreds of thousands of their citizens to death”. This is manipulation.

This case was processed by fact-checkers from the StopFake project. They found out that Arakhamiia stated that Ukraine really did not agree to the non-bloc status proposed by Russia, but there were objective reasons for this. Firstly, there is no trust in Russia’s promises to withdraw troops and not engage in hostilities with Ukraine anymore, and secondly, the Constitution of Ukraine should be changed, since the path to NATO is written there.

Throughout the war, the Russians have been promoting the thesis that Ukraine itself does not agree to peace. Thus, the Kremlin wants to show that the root cause of the armed aggression was allegedly the actions of Ukraine, which “provoked” Russia to war, and that in fact it was the Russian government that was the “peacemaker”. The purpose of such a narrative is to refute that it was Russia that started the war and that it was Russia that is to blame for all the crimes committed against the Ukrainian people.

Read on Censor.NET: 90% of Ukrainians are against territorial concessions to the aggressor, even for the sake of ending the war.

Russian President Volodymyr Putin recently said that Russia has no partiality towards anyone in the UN and that its actions do not violate the UN Charter. However, this is not true.

This message was noticed by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council. They recalled that on the day the full-scale invasion began, the war criminal stated that his actions were in accordance with the UN Charter. Later, he repeatedly justified the war in Ukraine, explaining it by the need to “protect the inhabitants of the people’s republics of Donbas”, which is one of the main narratives of Russian propaganda. The aggressor country constantly abuses its membership in the UN by blocking resolutions in support of world peace and stability.

Propagandists use such messages to provide validation for their actions. They say that the international community supports his actions. However, it is not. Detector Media has already written about how Russia uses international organizations to spread its propaganda, in particular the OSCE.

Anonymous telegram channels are distributing a video that allegedly shows a draft notice  that came through the Diia government services portal. The authors add that the Ukrainian leadership “never keeps its promises”, because they previously assured that draft notices  would not be sent through the application. The messages claimed that the actions and words of Ukrainian officials could hardly be “trusted”. It's a lie.

Analysts from the VoxCheck project undertook to analyze the case, explaining that draft notices are not received in Ukraine because of Diia. At the same time, the image of the agenda itself shows signs of editing. For example, the draft notice indicates the first and patronymic, but does not indicate the last name. It is also written that the recipient needs to appear “at the military commissariat”. But, according to the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated February 23, 2022, the commissariats were reformatted into territorial recruitment and social support centers.

At the same time, the image indicates: the data in the agenda was allegedly updated in October 2023. So, the photograph of the “draft notice” has been compiled. Analysts emphasize that during the video the hero did not touch the screen with his fingers - so, most likely, the Kremlin’s minions used a formatted photo and passed it off as the Diia interface.

By the way, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov stated that agendas will not be sent through Diia. The service does not contain any military registration services or notifications.

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric in the media began to disseminate information based on an interview with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi to the British publication The Sun. Like, he admitted that Russian aggression is “supported” by most of the world, and the interests of Ukraine are defended by “at best 14 countries”. In addition, according to them, Zelenskyi allegedly admitted “Ukraine’s inability to resist the military actions waged by Russia”. This is manipulation.

Analysts from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found that in fact, the President of Ukraine, in an interview with The Sun, accused Putin of “fuelling a fire” around the world that risks spiraling out of control, and added that a Hamas attack on Israel was Russia’s “great desire”. According to Zelenskyi, Russia plans to continue destabilizing the situation in the world, and the Balkans may be next to come under attack. According to him, this will continue until the Russian regime is stopped and punished.

Zelenskyi did note that Russia does not yet “feel that the whole world is against it”, but he did not claim that Russian aggression is “supported” by most of the world. The UN General Assembly condemned the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine by an absolute majority: the resolution “Aggression against Ukraine” was supported by 141 countries, and only five delegations - totalitarian Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Syria and Eritrea - voted against. In addition, on November 23, 2022, the European Parliament voted in favor of a resolution declaring Russia a state sponsor of terrorism for its large-scale invasion of the territory of Ukraine. A month earlier – on October 13, 2022 – PACE adopted a resolution in which it also declared the Russian regime terrorist. In addition, on October 13, 2023, PACE recommended that member states of the Council of Europe recognize Putin as illegitimate at the end of his current presidential term and cease all contacts with him. All these decisions of international institutions are the consequences of Russian aggression, which clearly demonstrate the unprecedented support for Ukraine by leading democratic countries.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyi also did not make any statements in this interview about Ukraine’s inability to resist Russia.

Propagandists spread such manipulations in order to personally discredit Zelenskyi and accuse him of betraying the interests of Ukrainian citizens. They say that the war must be stopped on Russia’s terms, and even the President of Ukraine admits this. Detector Media has repeatedly refuted the fabrications of propagandists aimed at personal attacks against Zelenskyi.

Self-proclaimed colonel, collaborator and war criminal Eduard Basurin claims that “denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine continues”. In general, the Russian leadership and propagandists are promoting the message that the so-called “special operation” is constantly ongoing, and all its goals will certainly be achieved.

Experts from the Center for Countering Disinformation drew attention to this repeated mantra. For example, Volodymyr Putin announced the two above-mentioned goals of the SVO on February 24, 2023. Moreover, another reason for the full-scale invasion, according to him, was “the protection of the residents of Donbas”. Over time, the Kremlin has already changed entire war goals against Ukraine many times, which indicates its confusion and misunderstanding between the military-political leadership of Russia.

Read also: The main goal of the so-called “SVO” is supposedly not to seize Ukraine, but to ensure the security of Russia

Such information was disseminated on social networks in the Russian segment, commenting on the meeting of the presidents (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic) of the Visegrad Group, who discussed issues of international politics, including the Russian-Ukrainian war. The authors claimed that Czech President Petr Pavel allegedly explained during the summit of heads of state that the Visegrad Group was “ready to engage in aggression against Russia”,  and NATO would allegedly attack Russia “after the war in Ukraine”. This is manipulation.

The StopFake analysts investigated the case and found that there were no statements about NATO’s readiness to launch an invasion of Russia at the Visegrad Four summit - this is an invention of the propaganda media. The meeting of leaders was devoted to European security issues in the context of Russian aggression against Ukraine. The parties stated that Russia must bear responsibility for human lives and damage, and the four countries must “resolutely continue to fully support Ukraine and its citizens”.

Among other things, Peter Pavel said during the meeting that Russia is the main threat to the security of Europe and, accordingly, the defense Alliance. That is, the manipulators distorted the entire context of the officials’ statements and simply came up with profitable Kremlin theses.

Using quotes from public figures, military officers, politicians and other public figures, Russian propaganda is trying to convince consumers of disinformation of the authenticity of such expressions. Like, if the European leader himself said this, then he can be trusted, because he is an authoritative source although the authors do not explain how reliable the information presented in the manipulative publication is. This is how propagandists use the tactic of appealing to authority.

The Visegrad Group was founded on February 15, 1991 in the Hungarian city of Visegrad by the presidents of Central European countries - Poland, Hungary, and then Czechoslovakia with the goal of integration into Euro-Atlantic structures. After the collapse of Czechoslovakia, the official name of the group was the “Visegrad Four”, or V4, consisting of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. It was possible to achieve the European and Euro-Atlantic goal in 2004 - the four countries joined NATO, and on May 1 of the same year V4 joined the European Union. Currently, countries also cooperate in the fields of culture, education, science and data exchange.

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric in the media claim that, according to the results of a sociological survey by Global Service and European Migration Support Bureau, a third of Ukrainian youth have migrated to Russia. In addition, the majority of Ukrainian refugees there allegedly recognized Russian aggression as “liberation”, and among the reasons for migration they named “better medicine” and “less unemployment” in Russia. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that the companies supposedly conducting this survey did not exist, and the information about the survey itself was fictitious. The incorrect information also indicates that the name of the European Migration Support Bureau is misspelled (probably European instead of European). Structures with similar names that deal with refugee issues do exist (for example, the European Union Agency for Asylum and the European Asylum Support Office), but none of them published the data indicated.

In addition, the very fact of conducting such a study is questionable, since Russian media admit that the survey involved Ukrainians who “traveled to the territory of Crimea or former Ukrainian regions that later joined Russia”. This does not reflect the actual situation, since many refugees ended up in Russia due to the lack of alternative evacuation routes.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists want to justify Russia’s crimes by saying that it is allegedly ready to create a better life for Ukrainians, ignoring the problems of its citizens.

This information is promoted by Spiridon Kilinkarov, a former Ukrainian politician, a traitor to Ukraine. He is hiding in Russia and speaking on Kremlin propaganda channels. In his opinion, Russia’s aggression is justified because it guarantees the country’s security. Kilinkarov argues that we are not talking exclusively about new territories for Russia, but about the exhaustive implementation of the assigned tasks for the Russian army.

The experts from the Center for Countering Disinformation examined this case. It turns out that by spreading such a message, the traitor makes Russia a victim of circumstances. They say that Russia must defend itself from NATO and the collective West, and therefore is forced to resort to armed confrontation on neutral territory, in Ukraine, playing ahead. A similar version of the reason for the full-scale invasion was voiced by the self-proclaimed President of Belarus Oleksandr Lukashenko: Russia launched a “preventive strike” because Ukraine was allegedly planning an attack on Belarus.

Propagandists have been trying to explain current events using conspiracy theories for years, trying to justify the crimes of the Russians. Sometimes they use the most absurd theories for this, such as the “Alaskan payment conspiracy” or “Orkney conspiracy” theory.

According to it, the Russian Empire allegedly never received payment for the purchase of Alaska from the United States, and instead the ship Orkney, allegedly carrying payment in the form of gold, was deliberately blown up with insurance money by Oleksandr ‘Sandy’ Keith, a conman and expert on explosions. They say Orkney sank in the Baltic Sea while transporting payment to St. Petersburg from London. Oleksandr Keith, who went by several aliases including William Thompson, had previously blown up ships to claim insurance money in Europe. Russian politician Volodymyr Zhyrynovskyi of Russia's Liberal Democratic Party has repeatedly made these allegations, as well as allegations of bribery related to the purchase agreement.

The theory was disproved. Firstly, the fact that Russia did receive the money is evidenced by the fact that it was then spent on building railway junctions throughout the country. Secondly, according to the conspiracy theory, Orkney was blown up on the date when the money was supposed to be sent. It is stated that the ship sank in the middle of July 1868, when payment was supposed to be delivered on August 1, 1868. Additionally, there is no record of the disappearance of a ship named Orkney, only a similar ship called the Orkney Lass, which, according to post-event reports, was still in service and was probably bound for South America that year rather than St. Petersburg. Gold has never been found in the Baltic Sea either.

Russian propagandists use this theory as one of the first examples of how the West allegedly constantly wanted to deceive Russia. In addition, a number of Russian propagandists and high-ranking officials, appealing to this theory, have repeatedly threatened the United States with military intervention in Alaska, since within the framework of the theory this territory continues to remain Russian. They say that Russia has the right to this, since it did not receive money for it at the time. In addition, they also want to justify the “struggle against the West and Western values”. Russia is victimizing itself by reinforcing the myth that the West constantly wants to destroy it using such theories.

Russian media claim that now Russians who left their country due to disagreement with Russian aggression against Ukraine are allegedly forced to look for food in landfills. However, this is manipulation.

Analysts from The Insider project drew attention to it. They found an article cited as a primary source in the manipulated reports. In fact, in the article “Freega - the idea of smart consumption”, journalist and photographer Serhii Stroitieliev talks about young Russians who moved to Georgia and remained faithful to the idea of “smart consumption”, or freeganism, without mentioning the difficulties of emigration. The article also notes that most of these people were engaged in freeganism back in Russia and that this is their way of life and practice associated with subculture, environmental and anarchist ideas.

By spreading such manipulations, propagandists want to discredit all those who oppose the war within Russia. Like, it’s unbearable abroad, but in Russia it’s good, so one needs to exchange principles for comfort.

Propaganda resources are trying to disorient the Ukrainian Defense Forces with messages about the alleged withdrawal of the Russian army from some temporarily occupied territories of the Kherson region. Thus, on the morning of November 12, pro-Russian media published news about the regrouping of Russian troops near Dnipro, and on November 13 they deleted their publications and reported that the preliminary information was canceled.

The Center for National Resistance investigated this case and stated that the regrouping of Russian troops in the Kherson region has not been recorded. This was reported to the Center by local residents of the temporarily occupied territories (TOT) of the Kherson region, which are discussed in the “news”. It looks like this case is an information operation against Ukraine. The Center for National Resistance also added that the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kherson region is a matter of time.