But while Russia has embraced and promoted American misinformation, as well as the Kremlin’s much larger stock of war fakes in Ukraine, both brands have been widely debunked by experts and most media outlets, highlighting Moscow’s regression. in the information war. Led by Fr. . . A feedback loop between the Kremlin and parts of the American right has been evident since the start of the war in February, which Moscow falsely described as a “special military operation” aimed at stopping the “genocide” of Russians in Ukraine and the “de-extermination.” – two obviously false accusations that have provoked widespread international criticism. However, Carlson’s powerful figure has prompted many false narratives to millions of Fox News viewers who have been eagerly embraced and recycled by Moscow and sections of the American right. Last month, for example, Carlson protested right-wing conspiracies that sought to link Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, to a discredited allegation that the United States funded bio-arms laboratories in Ukraine. On a separate front, two Republican congressional conservatives, Madison Cowthorn and Marjorie Taylor Green, delighted in Moscow last month by condemning Zelensky without evidence on conspiracy theories, sparking bipartisan criticism. Cawthorn described Zelenskiy as “pulling” and his government “incredibly corrupt”, while Greene also accused Zelenskiy of being “corrupt”. In addition, former Democratic lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard last month sought to soften and curtail Putin’s independent media repression in Russia, where journalists and other citizens can now face up to 15 years in prison for failing to comply. Kremlin’s Orwellian war line and dissemination What Moscow considers “false” news about its invasion of Ukraine. Gabard claimed that “what we see happening here [in America] “It’s not so different from what we see happening in Russia.” Most recently, Russian state television praised Gabard as “our friend Tulsey” in an interview with Carlson in which Gabard accused Biden of “lying” about his true motives in Ukraine, after M in Warsaw that Putin “can not stay in power. , Which the White House quickly clarified was not a call for regime change. Misinformation experts say that the false narratives of the US Right and the Kremlin during the war have shown some new upheavals that have increased the flow of serious conspiracy news, but have also provoked more criticism from experts for being blatantly false. “We often see a two-way flow of conspiracy theories moving from the right-wing American information ecosystem to the Kremlin and back again, creating a feedback loop that reinforces and reinforces messages from both groups,” said Bret Schafer, who leads . the Alliance for Democracy intelligence manipulation team. We often see a stream of narratives from the right-wing US information ecosystem to the Kremlin and Brett Shaffer Schafer noted that the feedback loop seems to be “best demonstrated by Hunter Biden’s recent attempt to link it to a US-led bio-arms program in Ukraine, where one can clearly see the merging of a favored domestic narrative into a foreign campaign makes it more intimate. , and therefore more reasonable, to certain target audiences “. Schaefer added that “influential American experts and conspiracy theorists first pushed the narrative to reinforce and legitimize it at the highest levels of the Russian government.” Some members of Congress also see a crossroads between elements of the American right and Moscow. “Putin and his oligarchs are well aware of the dark channels of influence in right-wing American politics today and are exploiting them whenever they can – as companies and right-wing billionaires do here at home,” Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse told the Guardian. “There is also a clear affinity with the powerful Putinski in some corners of the Republican Party, starting with Trump. “All of this shows the need for more transparency to help the American people understand who is influencing their policies and why,” Whitehouse added. But despite the Kremlin’s history of creating huge amounts of misleading misinformation and its ongoing efforts to spread new conspiracies, some former US officials say Moscow has largely failed in its efforts to distort the facts as it conducts a vicious cycle. “I believe they have completely failed internationally in their efforts to misinform,” John Herbst, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, told the Guardian. “I think they failed in Ukraine as well. “Russia has lost the information war.” Herbst stressed that Zelenskiy’s “excellent” messaging skills were a key antidote to the Kremlin’s latest war on misinformation, combined with heavy media coverage inside Ukraine of Russia’s well-documented attacks on civilians, medical facilities and brutal war tactics investigated by the International Criminal Court and others as possible war crimes. “That’s one reason Putin has taken draconian steps against the rest of the free media space,” Herbst added. Moscow is unlikely to abandon the pursuit of more false narratives to confuse and rally Russian and American supporters of the war, as Putin showed in late March in a bizarre riff on the “cancellation of civilization” aimed at Russian artists. punish the Kremlin for the war against Ukraine and the pressure. Russian cultural figures to denounce it. Putin likened these efforts to attacks on author JK Rowling for her views on trans issues, prompting the author to say that “criticism of Western culture of annulment is probably no better than that of slaughtering civilians for its crime.” resistance or imprisoning and poisoning their critics “. “Criticism of the culture of annulment, the harsh censorship of technology and the mainstream media have long been key elements of Russian propaganda aimed at American political right and the margins of the ‘anti-imperialist’ left,” Schafer said. These topics have “proven to be extremely successful in attracting American audiences in the past.” Schafer noted, however, that “there is considerable irony in the media and experts funded by a government that has systematically undermined freedom of speech and the press for the 140 million Russian citizens who condemn censorship in the West. But this irony is either lost or ignored by the outside public that is attracted by the message. “ More broadly, Herbst stressed that Putin’s supporters among some of Trump’s loyal Republicans and “with Trump in mind” have often “dealt with issues that show ignorance of Ukraine and an inadequate understanding of the dangers of Putin’s aggressive foreign policy American interests. “ Judging the impact of the feedback loop between Moscow and parts of the American right is “always extremely challenging,” Schaefer said. But “if the same narratives are repeated by influential politicians and news network experts with the most coverage in Russia and the United States, these narratives reach a significant audience.” He added: “Given that many in this audience are prepared to reject and distrust the ‘mainstream’ media and know-how, there is no fact-checking and objective reporting that is likely to change attitudes when certain lies are adopted as facts. ».
