World War III: Putin's hybrid war against Western democracies using the Russian secret services, propaganda journalism and corruption of foreign elites.
In Soviet times, Moscow was able to attract support from the far left in other countries; but under Vladimir Putin, there has been a remarkable change, Igor Eidman says. Now, Moscow is viewed positively not only by the far left but it viewed equally or even more positively by the far right, because of its carefully targeted propaganda messages.
Not long ago, the Russian sociologist and commentator says, a delegation of the KPRF to Venezuela was shocked to learn that many in that Latin American country believe that the communists still rule Russia and that “Putin is a communist or at worst a socialist.”
“Paradoxically, many far right Westerners consider the Russian dictator to share their views just as the left wing groups they hate do.”
According to Eidman, “the Kremlin uses precisely targeted ‘rockets with independently targeted warheads,’ each of which flies toward a specific goal.
Various groups of the population of Western countries are sent various and often contradictory ideological messages,” and thus is created “a system of myths directed specifically at each of them.”
There is only one thing these messages have in common: “they are based on crude lies and do not have anything in common with reality.”
In the first of what he promises to be a series of articles analyzing these messages, the Russian commentator points to three myths, contrasting what Moscow is saying to what in fact it is doing.
Eidman says that one of the myths Moscow promotes for the left, pacifists, and anti-American conspiracy believers is that “Putin is the main opponent of American hegemony and militarism, the powers of the world financial oligarchy, international corporations, and speculative international elites.” He is thus “the natural ally of ‘progressive humanity.’”
In reality, Putin’s Russia “cultivates everything that the left throughout the world condemns” – social inequality, an attack on worker and immigrant rights, discrimination against sexual minorities, sexism, militarism and clericalism.
Moreover, Eidman continues, in recent years, it has been the Kremlin, not the White House that has engaged in military expansion by attacking neighbors and sending mercenaries to prop up dictatorial regimes. But Moscow’s propaganda to the left is so successful that many on the left in the West believe otherwise.
For the far right, conservatives and Christian clericals, the Russian commentator says, Moscow offers a different message, namely that “Putin’s Russia is the last outpost of Christian values, traditional morality and the family and a country which opposes the attacks of migrants, ‘perverts,’ and Islamists.”
“In reality,” he says, Russia is a country of “total corruption, a very high level of drug use and crime, and numerous pedophile scandals involving elected and government officials, and priests.
“Russia is the world leader in the number of divorces, abortions, abandoned children, and the growth of HIV infections, and there are more illegal migrants from Islamic countries in Moscow than in any other world capital. The Kremlin in fact has created and continues to support Kadyrov’s militant Islamist enclave in Chechnya.”
And yet a third myth is directed at Russians abroad. According to Moscow propagandists, “Putin is concerned about you, while in Europe there are Russophobes all around and Russian speakers are mistreated. Only Russia can defend you.” The reality is entirely different, Eidman argues.
“The Kremlin needs Russian speakers abroad only as an instrument of influence and a weapon of hybrid war.”
As a result, 100,000 Russians were left stateless “in a despotic state where they are really subject to discrimination. They pose no interest to the Russian powers that be.” Instead, Moscow focuses on Russians in democratic Western countries where Russians are not mistreated but welcomed.
This list can easily be extended and Eidman promises to do so. But the approach he adopts is a useful model for all those who are confronted by the messages of his regime, messages based on lies carefully designed to appeal to those who aren’t prepared to check their facts.
Read More:
- Two Ukrainian TV channels push Russian propaganda amid presidential election: report
- Distraction as a tool of Russian propaganda
- Russian propaganda concocts “moral migration” from EU to Russia-occupied Crimea
- Fake: Russian propaganda claims 1/4 of Ukrainians fled Ukraine because of pro-NATO policy
- Russian propaganda outlets want freedom of deception, believe EU leads witch hunt against them
- How to get a 146% election result: Background of Kremlin propaganda classic case explained
- How pro-Kremlin think tanks spread propaganda in the West
Tags: anti-US propaganda, Disinformation, Fake news, far left, Far right, Hybrid warfare, Kremlin myths, myths about Russia, Russia's hybrid war, Russian disinformation, Russian media, Russian military strategy, Russian propaganda
