On 21 July, US President Joe Biden announced his decision not to run in the next presidential election. This event became the basis for the spread of conspiracy theories about the Deep State in the United States, which, according to Russian propaganda, allegedly forces Biden to withdraw from the political arena in order to promote its candidate, Kamala Harris. Harris is presented as a puppet of this shadowy structure, and Donald Trump as a fighter against it. All this echoes Trump's own rhetoric.Читати українськоюRead about this and more in the new issue of our monitoring of Russian state media and manipulative sites that specifically spread Russian disinformation.

In June alone, the video with the hashtag #Recruiting office received 470 million views in Ukrainian TikTok (3 billion all-time). At the same time, 13 thousand posts with this hashtag were published within a month (62 thousand all-time). This is the first most popular hashtag in the News and Entertainment category. It is increasingly being used on the TikTokers pages, which seem to have nothing to do with the topic of the Recruiting office and mobilization. That's because this topic gets many more views.We decided to look at how and whom TikTok encourages to make videos about Recruiting office. To do this, we uploaded the latest posts by TikTokers whose videos appeared in the search results using the hashtag #Recruiting office. Along with the reach, we analyzed how many Russians are following this topic.Читати українською

Over the past week, Russian media have devoted considerable attention to Biden's health and attempts to discredit him, as well as the assassination attempt on Trump, which they see as "evidence of internal tensions in the US" and a "harbinger of civil war".At the same time, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Moscow is presented as a sign of the failure of Western policies to isolate Russia and as confirmation of its growing influence on the international stage.Читати українськоюRead about this and more in the new issue of our monitoring of Russian state media and manipulative sites that specifically spread Russian disinformation.

On his YouTube channel, Timur can sometimes even criticise the local or Russian authorities, but in a kind way. This is similar to how a resident of a European colony who was educated in a colonial school might lament that "white masters" should visit their colony more often to restore order. We have investigated how Russian propaganda uses bloggers, both local and foreign, to absolve themselves of responsibility for the destruction of Mariupol and the killed citizens.Читати українською

Last week, Russian media wrote about the diplomatic trips of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. He visited Kyiv and asked the President of Ukraine to cease fire, then flew to Moscow with the same request. Around the politician's trips, Russian propaganda started producing numerous interpretations, as they always do. There were versions suggesting this was a Western plan for reconciling the countries following the Korean scenario, that Orbán would now become Putin's representative in the West, and that Orbán was making these journeys at Zelensky's request to establish a peace process.Читати українськоюRead about this and more in the new issue of our monitoring of Russian state media and manipulative websites that specifically spread Russian disinformation.

"...Could Zelenskyy have ordered the Armed Forces of Ukraine to strike a children's hospital during a Russian missile attack to get more air defense systems and aircraft?" rhetorically asks a Russian propagandist on Telegram. He immediately answers himself: "Zelenskyy showed with Bucha that he is ready for any crimes against humanity..." While the ruins were still smoking, Russian propaganda launched a wide and clearly pre-planned information campaign. It consisted of the usual elements for such cases, but there was also something new: a wave of posts claiming that peace negotiations with Russia are necessary.Читати українською

Russian media are preoccupied with explaining the terrorist acts by Islamists, which are becoming more frequent in the Russian Federation. The most common version is to link the West and Ukraine to the recent terrorist attack in Dagestan. However, this version sounds very absurd, and some media are trying to analyze the real causes and cite the methods of the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, as an example of solving the problem.Читати українською

"A historical visit in modern Russian history" — this was the refrain used by Russian media to describe Vladimir Putin's visit to North Korea. Such epithets are often given to almost any foreign trip by the Russian president in the absence of contacts with the West.Briefly About the Main PointsIt is important for Russian media to show that Moscow has friends. Particularly valuable are those who openly support Putin's war against Ukraine. In this hierarchy, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un surpasses other allies such as China, Iran, and Belarus, who publicly declare neutrality: "North Korea openly supports the special military operation (SMO). The only country. We should value it." However, the issue is not just about verbal support. Propaganda expects Pyongyang to increase the supply of ammunition, as well as tanks, artillery, and Korean workers in Russian factories. They also want North Korea to pressure Ukraine's supporters in Asia, and they claim that in the event of nuclear war, North Korea would strike the United States.Читати українськоюRead about this and more in the new issue of our monitoring of Russian state media and manipulative websites that spread Russian disinformation.

Last week, the main topic in Russian media was the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland, organized by Ukraine. In our opinion, this attention indicates that the idea of the summit is very sound. The main theses of the propagandists were predictable: Ukraine experienced a diplomatic failure.Читати українськоюKey PointsDisinformers claim that the summit "failed" because Russia and China were not there. They say the countries of the so-called Global South did not want to support Kyiv, and the anti-Russian stance was taken by the well-established Russophobes from the USA and Europe. They argue that insignificant statements were signed that do not affect Russia in any way. It was interesting to see how Russian propaganda explained why supposedly friendly countries like Turkey, Hungary, and Slovakia signed the final communiqué of the meeting. The answers were also unoriginal: some surrendered their sovereignty to NATO or wanted to please Washington, while others were intimidated by threats of murder. Additionally, Russian propagandists manipulated the number of participants. For example, participation was measured by the level of the delegation. If a president or prime minister represented a country, it was considered unfriendly; if by someone of lower rank, the participation was discounted, as these were mere spectators who did not want to sever relations with either the West or Russia.Read about this and more in the new issue of our monitoring of Russian state media and manipulative sites that specifically spread Russian disinformation.

On May 23, TikTok announced an update to its policy against targeted influence campaigns: from now on, all channels labeled as “state-controlled media” will not appear in recommended videos outside their country of origin. Thus, Spanish-speaking RT will not appear in the recommendation feed for the Spanish-speaking audience, and Sputnik Brasil will not appear for the Brazilian audience. But does this restriction work effectively? We decided to check the data.Читати українською