“There is truth and there are lies. Lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and responsibility, as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders – leaders who have pledged to honor our Constitution and protect our nation — to defend the truth and to defeat the lies.”

Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
President of the United States

Disinformation is one of the Kremlin’s most important and far-reaching weapons.  Russia has operationalized the concept of perpetual adversarial competition in the information environment by encouraging the development of a disinformation and propaganda ecosystem.  This ecosystem creates and spreads false narratives to strategically advance the Kremlin’s policy goals.  There is no subject off-limits to this firehose of falsehoods.  Everything from human rights and environmental policy to assassinations and civilian-killing bombing campaigns are fair targets in Russia’s malign playbook.

Truth disarms Russia’s disinformation weapons.  The Kremlin creates and spreads disinformation in an attempt to confuse and overwhelm people about Russia’s real actions in Ukraine, Georgia, and elsewhere in Europe.  Because the truth is not in the Kremlin’s favor, Russia’s intelligence services create, task, and influence websites that pretend to be news outlets to spread lies and sow discord.  Disinformation is a quick and fairly cheap way to destabilize societies and set the stage for potential military action.  Despite having been exposed for engaging in these malign activities countless times, Russia continues to work counter to international norms and global stability.

New Releases

The U.S. Department of State’s Global Engagement Center is exposing Russia’s intelligence services for providing material support and guidance to “African Initiative,” a new information agency focused on Africa-Russia relations that has spread disinformation regarding the United States and European countries.

The death of Wagner Group leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin on August 23, 2023, provides an opportunity to review some of the most egregious ways in which the Russian government has lied about the role, purposes, and so-called successes of the Wagner Group. This bulletin analyzes and counters the false claims Russia continues to spread about the Wagner Group’s activities in Africa and reveals them for what they are – criminals motivated by greed rather than an effective counterterrorism force.

This report is also available in French.

In this two-part report, the U.S. Department of State’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) documents how successive occupants of the Kremlin have exploited antisemitism for disinformation and propaganda purposes.

This report is also available in ArabicChineseFrenchPersianPortugueseRussianSpanish, Ukrainian, and Urdu.

The Kremlin uses both open and hidden networks to manipulate information and spread anti-democratic, authoritarian ideologies around the world. This report focuses on Nova Resistência, a neo-fascist, pro-authoritarian group in Brazil with close ties to U.S.-sanctioned fascist Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin. Nova Resistência, its “sister” groups of New Resistance, and its overall network use Kremlin disinformation and propaganda to attempt to destabilize democracies, engage in support for revanchist military activity through quasi-paramilitary groups, and upend the rules-based international order.

The report is also available in Portuguese and Spanish

The Kremlin appears determined to erase Ukraine’s existence as a state by attempting to rob it of its future. To deflect responsibility, Russia disseminates disinformation and propaganda attempting to distort its abuses as “humanitarian” gestures. Russia also conducts disinformation and propaganda-filled activities aimed at brainwashing children in Russia-occupied parts of Ukraine or children from Ukraine it deports to Russia into believing that the Kremlin is saving them from a “Nazi regime in Kyiv.” Accountability is imperative.

This bulletin is also available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Hindi, Persian, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian, and Urdu

In the aftermath of Moscow’s July 2023 withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the Kremlin continues to distort data, deny facts, and manipulate math attempting to perpetuate five false myths. Russia’s disinformation myths cannot hide the hard truths that (1) sanctions did not apply to Russia’s grain, (2) Ukraine’s grain is critical to getting adequate food to low-income countries, (3) Russia cannot replace Ukraine’s grain supply, (4) the Kremlin is on track to destroy more grain than it has offered to donate, and (5) every day more Russian missiles and drones intentionally target the vital pipeline that provides Ukraine’s grain to the rest of the world and keeps food prices stable.

This bulletin is also available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian and Urdu.

Reports

In this two-part report, the U.S. Department of State’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) documents how successive occupants of the Kremlin have exploited antisemitism for disinformation and propaganda purposes. Part One details the contemporary Kremlin’s use of antisemitic disinformation in the context of its war against Ukraine and describes how Russia’s leaders and propagandists spread anti-Jewish conspiracy theories to shift blame and distort world events. Part Two provides a historical overview of how Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union used this insidious technique to further their ends.

The Kremlin uses both open and hidden networks to manipulate information and spread anti-democratic, authoritarian ideologies around the world. This report focuses on Nova Resistência, a neo-fascist, pro-authoritarian group in Brazil with close ties to U.S.-sanctioned fascist Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin. Nova Resistência, its “sister” groups of New Resistance, and its overall network use Kremlin disinformation and propaganda to attempt to destabilize democracies, engage in support for revanchist military activity through quasi-paramilitary groups, and upend the rules-based international order.

The report is also available in Portuguese and Spanish

Over the year of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin deployed a disinformation roulette of false narratives to deceive the world about the Kremlin’s neo-imperial intentions and attempt to justify an unjustifiable war. The Kremlin routinely changed its false claims to distract from its battlefield failures and political isolation. From NATO “encirclement” and “genocide against Donbas” to “denazification,” to “desatanization,” and “defending Russia’s sovereignty,” these false rhetorical contortions serve one goal — to mask Russia’s apparent effort to erase the sovereign, independent state of Ukraine from the map and subjugate its people.

The Kremlin’s spreading of unfounded and debunked allegations that the United States and Ukraine are conducting chemical and biological weapons activities in Ukraine is part of a well-established Russian disinformation tactic. The Kremlin has a long track record of accusing others of the very violations they commit.

Russian state-owned and state-directed media, such as RT and Sputnik play a crucial role in how Russia uses disinformation to advance its foreign policy.  These state-funded, and state-directed outlets disseminate Russian narratives to foreign audiences, and regularly amplify content from the other pillars of Russia’s disinformation ecosystem, including websites associated with Russia’s intelligence services. The State Department’s Global Engagement Center’s “Kremlin-Funded Media: RT and Sputnik’s Role in Russia’s Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem” report exposes Kremlin-controlled organizations that masquerade as independent media.

The State Department’s Global Engagement Center released the “Pillars of Russia’s Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem” report in August 2020. The report outlines the five pillars of Russia’s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem and how these pillars work together to create a media multiplier effect. In particular, it details how the tactics of one pillar, proxy sources, interact with one another to elevate malicious content and create an illusion of credibility. The report is also available in French [7 MB], Spanish Portuguese , Russian and Arabic .

Statements

Past Products

The Kremlin weaponizes hunger and disseminates disinformation, attempting to deceive the international community about the causes of the food crisis and to undermine the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI), which has been critical in alleviating the devastating consequences of Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine. The Kremlin lies to hide its use of blackmail to make even more money off the war it started at the expense of the planet’s most vulnerable populations.

This bulletin is also available in: Arabic, Chinese, French, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Ukranian, and Urdu.

A loyal Kremlin messenger and among the most enthusiastic purveyors of Russia’s disinformation and propaganda, Maria Zakharova has served as the Russian Foreign Ministry (MFA)’s spokesperson since 2015. In the lead-up to Russia’s unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Zakharova spared no effort to deny that Russia had any plans for war, and repeatedly accused Western media of disinformation when they reported otherwise.

This bulletin is also available in: Arabic, Chinese, French, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian, and Urdu.

Gendered disinformation  is a subset of misogynistic abuse and violence against women that uses false or misleading gender and sex-based narratives, often with some degree of coordination, to deter women from participating in the public sphere. Both foreign state and non-state actors strategically use gendered disinformation to silence women, discourage online political discourse, and shape perceptions toward gender and the role of women in democracies. In a groundbreaking study, Canada, the European External Action Service (EEAS), Germany, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, and the United States jointly assessed the tactics used by these actors to sow gendered and other identity-based disinformation across the world. Key findings from this report are detailed below.

This bulletin is also available in ArabicChineseFrenchPersianPortugueseRussianSpanishUkrainian, and Urdu.

Resources

Multimedia

The “International Counter-Disinformation Research Agenda” for was developed in Spring 2022 by a U.S. Department of State Global Engagement Center-led international working group of over 40 members across nine U.S. Federal Government agencies and over 10 partner nations and governmental organizations. The working group’s goal was to identify key short- to medium-term research needs, topics, and ideas related to countering disinformation to share with university and think-tank-based researchers. The aim is to inspire critical counter-disinformation-related research.

August 16, 2022
Video: Navalny Panel Discussion

On July 5, the United States, along with Canada and the Chairperson of the International Partnership against Impunity for the Use of Chemical Weapons, co-hosted an event showing the award-winning documentary Navalny. The event highlighted the compelling evidence revealing Russia’s responsibility in the poisoning of Mr. Aleksey Navalny with a chemical weapon. A panel discussion followed the movie with film director Daniel Roher, Bellingcat’s lead Russia investigator Christo Grozev, and Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation head of investigations Maria Pevchikh. The panel highlighted the importance of international sanctions against Russia, the need to use facts to counter disinformation, and why Navalny’s case should remain in the public eye. Watch the updated full video on the U.S. Embassy The Hague’s Youtube channel.

A set of infographics that provides an overview of mis-, dis-, and malinformation and five proactive steps that individuals can take to help stop the spread of disinformation: recognize the risk, question the source, investigate the issue, think before you link, and talk to your circle.

Counter Disinformation Dispatches

The Global Engagement Center’s Counter Disinformation Dispatches summarize lessons learned about disinformation and how to counter it based on the experiences of frontline counter-disinformation practitioners, for the benefit of those newly engaged in this issue. Previous editions of the Dispatches are listed below and are also available in Spanish, Russian and French.

The Russian Army’s brutal war on Ukraine is killing thousands of innocent  civilians, including unconscionable attacks on hospitals. The valiant Ukrainian resistance is winning the world’s admiration and sympathy, while Russian cruelty destroys the appeal of its  “Russian World” concept.

January 13, 2022
Exploiting Primal Fears

This Dispatch focuses on how and why fear is used in disinformation, while also showing that pointing out people’s irrational fears can help counter these false narratives.

Documentary evidence on instructions given to the Internet Research Agency (IRA) troll factory following Nemtsov’s murder, and extensive propaganda/disinformation claims following the Skripal and Navalny poisonings.

Additional Resources from Allies and Partners

EU vs Disinfo
NATO

U.S. Department of State

The Lessons of 1989: Freedom and Our Future