If it weren’t for those meddling Europeans
As Russia’s war against Ukraine nears the three-year mark, peace is increasingly on everyone’s mind. None more so than the Ukrainian people who have fought tirelessly to protect Ukraine’s freedom, their language, and their culture from the advances of unbridled Russian imperialism. Their fight, above all else, is for peace. In Ukraine, and in Europe.
And so, the Kremlin’s information manipulators seek to do everything in their power to turn the peace narrative on its head and blame the EU and Ukraine for standing in the way of peace. In this week’s Disinfo Review, we dive into the current rendition of the Kremlin’s disinformation narratives about peace supporting Moscow’s geopolitical aims in Ukraine and beyond.
A constant narrative evolution
The Kremlin’s take on peace has evolved over the last three years. During the early days of Russia’s full-scale war, there was no space for narratives about peace, only for an ill-advised tone of triumphalism. Then, realising the Ukrainian resolve to defend their homes would not be easily broken, the Kremlin started talking about peace while its bombs rained down on Ukrainian civilians. Moscow quickly devised ‘peace proposals’ that were merely empty PR stunts, deploying the narrative of peace to support Russia’s war, masking Moscow’s true imperial ambitions.
As the war raged on, the Kremlin’s disinformation peddlers continued to spin their twisted tale of peace, increasingly reaching out to more global audiences and depicting Russia’s war against Ukraine as a noble fight to dismantle the ‘Western hegemony’ and establish a ‘truly multipolar’ world order.
But, there was a complication in maintaining this knight-in-shining-armour image. Ukraine and its supporters interested in just and lasting peace were already working toward their goal, including building a global community to support real peace. The Kremlin then pivoted from polishing its own image to disparaging the West or any proposals for peace that were not rooted in Russian imperialist ultimatums. This dichotomy – disguising Russia’s aggression as attempts for peace and accusing the West of not being serious about peace – has now become the Kremlin’s go-to tactic to manipulate the public perception of achievable peace in Ukraine.
Play the nice guy
This brings us to the present. With Donald J. Trump returning as the 47th President of the United States of America, peace has once again become a hot topic for the Kremlin’s disinformation launderers. The Kremlin’s information manipulation apparatus ploughs full steam ahead to depict Putin as a constructive negotiator. A really nice guy, actually. As long as Ukraine and its supporters just accept Moscow’s demands, deceptively called ‘the realities of today’.
There was also a bit of awkward schmoozing, with Putin trying to play on President Trump’s ego with the entirely implausible claim that the war would not have happened if Donald Trump had been elected in 2020. Was Putin, who revels in long-winded tirades demonising the West, really suggesting he would have outsourced Russia’s foreign policy of bringing Ukraine under Moscow’s control to Washington? A bit of an odd look. But the Kremlin attempted to temper its initially jovial tone about President Trump with some more sombre notes, especially in the context of negotiating a quick end to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Delegitimise the opponents
Another distinctive trait of the Kremlin’s information manipulation operations is an ongoing campaign to smear, delegitimise and dismiss any potential negotiators from the Ukrainian side in order to maintain one of the core pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives, claiming that ‘the Kyiv regime’ are Nazis and terrorists and cannot be reasoned with. President Zelenskyy draws particular ire as the Kremlin tries to maintain the fabrication that he is not the legitimate leader of Ukraine, and should be dismissed from any future peace negotiations.
President Zelenskyy is not the only one getting the Kremlin’s vilification treatment. As Moscow seeks to evolve its deceitful peace narrative in anticipation of potential geopolitical shifts, the EU too has landed in the Kremlin’s disinformation cross-hairs. While the narrative accusing the EU of ‘Russophobia’ and warmongering is not particularly new, singling out the EU, not the mythical ‘collective West’ as the concrete obstacle for peace is a rather novel approach. Luckily, we’re still not completely alone, as NATO also got a pro-Kremlin shout-out for being allegedly responsible for Russia’s wars.
Split the support base
Essentially, the Kremlin uses this manipulative tactic of spreading disinformation narratives about peace appears to try to drive wedges between the staunchest supporters of Ukraine, especially between the EU and the US. It also tries to work up division between member states of the EU and inside individual countries: warmongers vs. peace-seekers.
Hence Kremlin’s mouthpieces spend countless screen-hours to launder disinformation narratives about Europe’s ‘lost sovereignty’, revel in gloomy predictions about Europe’s miserable fate, claim lack of resources to keep the peace and depict Europe as a feeble and uninteresting partner for the US. The truth is, as always, that the Kremlin is keenly aware of Russia’s own shortfalls, so it seeks to project the image of its own weakness onto its adversaries.
Peace on Russia’s terms is life under occupation for millions
There are many voices calling for peace. The Kremlin’s information manipulation apparatus seeks to hijack the narrative of peace to create a maximalist starting point for negotiations that would allow Russia to solidify its imperial expansion unchecked. But the ‘realities of today’, to borrow Putin’s own words, mean that peace on Russian terms would be subjecting millions of Ukrainian people to a life of repressions and authoritarianism under Russian occupation. Don’t be deceived.
Also on the EUvsDisinfo radar this week:
- Belarus: The Kremlin has a very peculiar definition of elections. When they take place in free and democratic societies, the Kremlin cries: ‘Sham!’ like it tried to do about the European elections in June 2024. But then looking at its own tightly controlled backyard, whether in Russia proper or its lackey Belarus, the Kremlin prefers to describe the bizarre spectacle of reaffirmation of an autocratic ruler as ‘free and fair elections’. So, of course, the Kremlin’s disinformation peddlers readily claimed the recent ‘elections’ in Belarus were an example of self-determination and sovereignty. However, the recent absurd spectacle in Belarus cannot be considered a true electoral contest. Lukashenka may claim to have received 87,6 percent of the votes, but the process took place in a climate of strong repression against opposition activists and independent media, and with no real contenders against Lukashenka allowed on the ballot. The process was not monitored by independent observers either. These conditions were already denounced by the European Parliament as well as by the EU High Representative / Vice President Kaja Kallas, exposing the shortfalls of this so-called election.
- Paris Agreement: If there is one manipulative card the Kremlin’s disinformation gremlins never fail to play, it’s claiming the Russia-is-always-the-victim card. And if there is a relevant or contentious topic to exploit, all the better. The recent US announcement about withdrawing from the Paris Agreement spurred a lively public debate about climate, and so the Kremlin pounced at the opportunity to peddle more climate-related disinformation, this time claiming that the Paris Agreement was designed as a geopolitical trap against Russian energy. This self-important claim is utter nonsense. The Paris Agreement was not intended to target any country. It was an international, legally-binding effort signed by 195 states plus the European Union, aiming to curb climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As Russia’s economy is highly dependent on hydrocarbons, pro-Kremlin disinformation has often targeted environmentalist initiatives or policies focusing on gas and oil.
- Serbia: A true indication of the prevailing paranoia in Moscow, the Kremlin sees the ‘long arm of the West’ and ‘colour revolutions’ everywhere it looks. With the recent resignation of the Serbian Prime Minister Miloš Vučević following weeks of protests after the tragic collapse of the train station canopy in Novi Sad, the Kremlin’s information manipulators immediately sought to use this occasion to claim that Serbia is on the verge of collapse after the West sent an ultimatum to Belgrade. Incidentally, pro-Kremlin disinformation outlets spread similarly manipulative stories alleging a Western-fuelled ‘Maidan’ unfolding in Slovakia. In reality, there is zero credible evidence of any Western involvement in Serbia’s protests. The protest movement was initially led by students, but soon professors, lawyers and other professionals joined them, pointing to widespread dissatisfaction with Alexander Vucic’s administration.
