Last week, Russian media were forced to focus their attention on the Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region. The initial stage when propagandists didn't say what happened is over. Now, in particular, they have resorted to the old trick of talking about the future as if it had already come, and predict the future failure of the Ukrainians. They also attribute the temporary success of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to the arrival of Western military equipment. They also accuse the "Ukrainian Nazis" of using Russian civilians as human shields and of chasing them with drones during the evacuation.Читати українськоюRead about this and more in the new issue of our monitoring of Russian state media and manipulative websites that target Russian disinformation.

Last week, the Russian media devoted most of its news to Ukraine's offensive in the Kursk region while demonstrating its helplessness. They were afraid to report the facts, so under the guise of news, they offered Russians words of sympathy, reassurance that Putin had everything under control and empty promises of ending the war by the end of the year. They also started spreading scare stories for Ukraine's Western partners about the threat of Ukrainians damaging nuclear power plants in both Kursk and Zaporizhzhia.Читати українськоюRead about this and more in the new issue of our monitoring of Russian state media and manipulative websites that target Russian disinformation.

The international prisoner exchange between Russia and the West on August 1 was an important event for both sides. Russia turned the exchange into a huge show emphasizing its power and influence. The Kremlin's propaganda machine created a picture of President Putin's determination and commitment to his citizens and presented the returned Russians as heroes. At the same time, the West received alleged "enemies of Russia" who were, in fact, journalists, human rights defenders, and political activists.Читати українськоюRead about this and more in the new issue of our monitoring of Russian state media and manipulative websites that target Russian disinformation.

On 26 July, the Summer Olympics started in France. Russia and Belarus were banned from participating because of their aggression against Ukraine. Moscow, demonstratively offended by the organizers, refused to broadcast the Olympics. However, even though propagandists urged their audience to ignore the Olympics, they covered it in detail.The central message of the propaganda is that pseudo-values are being cultivated in Paris. And the main narratives spread by disinformers are the collapse of transport and food, racism, the terrible crime situation, and the dirty water in the Seine, where "feces float." The performance at the opening of the Games was also labeled: "The freedom of the organizers of the event has turned into permissiveness and demonism."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 late May, Tiktok announced that in the first months of 2024, it had disrupted 15 influence operations on the platform and deleted 3,001 related accounts. We were able to find more than 2,000 accounts that were created as part of a single Russian information operation revolving around the hashtag #it'snotmyukraine and aimed at discrediting the mobilization in Ukraine and the actions of the Recruiting office.Читати українською

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.