Russia’s narrative manipulation

This past week, Russian officials and FIMI outlets staged ‘offers of dialogue’ for Western audiences, presenting Russia as reasonable while portraying Ukraine as unwilling to negotiate – all while Moscow’s drone attacks continued on a massive scale. Last weekend, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave an interview to NBC’s Meet the Press. It was a masterclass in the Kremlin’s FIMI playbook: half-truths, outright lies, and constant attempts to rewrite history. Here are the key claims from Lavrov’s interview, and the reality behind them.

Negotiations

• What Lavrov says: ‘Putin is ready to meet with Zelenskyy, provided such a meeting is really going to decide something’.
• What Lavrov really means: Putin is not interested in negotiations about peace – only in Ukraine’s surrender.

Russia presents itself as ‘open to dialogue’, but in reality, it has refused to meet with Zelenskyy unless Ukraine accepts its maximalist demands. The record is clear: from Minsk to Istanbul, Moscow has used talks not to seek peace but to buy time and press for domination. Today, the Kremlin’s staged ‘offers of dialogue’ serve as propaganda aimed at Western audiences, designed to make Russia look reasonable while casting Ukraine as unwilling to talk, even as Moscow keeps up its war of aggression.

Zelenskyy’s legitimacy

• What Lavrov says: ‘According to the Ukrainian constitution, Mr. Zelenskyy is not legitimate’.
• What Lavrov really means: The Kremlin will use any excuse to undermine Ukraine’s elected president.

In reality, Volodymyr Zelenskyy remains Ukraine’s legitimate, democratically elected head of state. His mandate is recognised by Ukraine’s parliament, its citizens and the international community.

Russia claims otherwise by misquoting the Ukrainian constitution. The Ukrainian constitution provides that the president’s mandate continues in times of martial law or wartime, when free and fair elections cannot be conducted.

Russia’s FIMI narratives about Zelenskyy’s supposed illegitimacy are not about legality, they are part of its war effort. Zelenskyy has become the face of Ukraine’s resistance and unity against Russian aggression. Discrediting him, questioning his legitimacy, or trying to remove him from power is another way for Moscow to pursue what it has failed to achieve on the battlefield.

At the same time, Moscow cynically invokes Ukraine’s constitution while rejecting its most fundamental principles – that Crimea and other illegally occupied regions are integral parts of Ukraine, and that the country’s territorial integrity must be preserved. Russia misuses legal language to delegitimise Ukraine’s leadership while simultaneously trampling the very constitutional order it pretends to cite.

Russia’s bombing campaign

• What Lavrov says: ‘We only attack the sites directly involved in the Ukrainian military machine’.
• What Lavrov really means: While the world seeks peace, Russia continues its attacks on civilian infrastructure.

In reality, Russia has repeatedly struck hospitals, schools, energy facilities, maternity wards, churches, kindergartens, and universities across Ukraine. The UN, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and other independent organisations have documented these attacks as violations of international humanitarian law.

The ‘special military operation’

• What Lavrov says: ‘We started the special military operation to protect the people whom the regime declared terrorists and enemies’.
• What Lavrov really means: Russia is using the pretext of ‘protection’ to justify widespread destruction and its imperial ambitions.

The Kremlin claims it is acting to defend Russian-speaking Ukrainians from persecution. In reality, Russia’s invasion has caused massive human suffering, with tens of thousands of civilians having been killed, millions have been forced to flee their homes, and entire cities have been devastated. Previously thriving cities such as Mariupol, Bakhmut, Kherson, and other towns have been turned into wartime battlegrounds, with residential areas, schools, hospitals, and cultural sites deliberately targeted. Moscow’s bombs have done more harm to Russian-speaking Ukrainians than anything Kyiv ever supposedly did.

Russia claims it is intervening to stop a genocide against Russian speakers. This narrative is entirely false. Independent investigations, including by the UN and OSCE, find no evidence of systematic genocide or state-led persecution of Russian-speaking populations in Ukraine. Russian claims of a ‘genocide’ have been repeatedly debunked; they are used as a propaganda pretext to justify an illegal war of aggression.

Moscow’s actions confirm that the purpose of the ‘special military operation’ is not protection, but military domination and territorial expansion, under the guise of ‘liberation’.

The Budapest Memorandum

• What Lavrov says: ‘We never, ever signed up to providing security to Ukraine after an illegal bloody coup d’état’.
• What Lavrov really means: Moscow will twist international agreements to justify its aggression.

The 1994 Budapest Memorandum, signed by Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine, explicitly guaranteed Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity in exchange for Kyiv giving up its nuclear arsenal. Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its subsequent aggression in Eastern Ukraine represent blatant violations of these commitments.

Moscow falsely frames the 2014 Ukrainian revolution as an ‘illegal coup’ to rationalise its actions. In reality, the change in government was the result of peaceful mass protests (the Euromaidan movement) demanding the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych due to his decision to abandon a trade and association agreement with the EU, his government’s widespread corruption, and the violent repression of protesters. Yanukovych fled the country, and the Ukrainian parliament, following constitutional procedures, appointed an interim government and scheduled new elections.

By misrepresenting these events, Russia attempts to rewrite history to justify its violations of international law and the ongoing war against Ukraine.

Deny, deflect, distort

Lavrov’s NBC interview shows the Kremlin’s disinformation playbook at work: deny, deflect, distort. Deny atrocities like Bucha. Deflect responsibility by blaming the West. Distort history, from NATO expansion to the Budapest Memorandum. But the facts are clear: Russia launched an unprovoked war against Ukraine, continues to bomb civilians, undermines peace efforts, and spreads lies to cover its crimes. Ukraine is defending its sovereignty and its people. Russia is defending only its imperial ambitions.

Don’t be deceived.

Also on our radar this week:

• True to tradition, Kremlin-linked outlets used the anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact to perpetuate the false claim that it was a defensive Soviet move ‘forced by’ the West’s appeasement policy towards Nazi Germany. In reality, the pact was a secret protocol dividing Eastern Europe, enabling Germany’s invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and the USSR’s invasion from the east, along with Soviet annexations of the Baltics, parts of Romania, and Finnish territory. Far from defensive, it was a deliberate bargain. No matter how many times this historical revisionism has been debunked, Russia continues its efforts to whitewash Soviet responsibility for WWII and the occupation of Eastern Europe.
• As Moldova gears up for parliamentary elections next month, Kremlin-linked outlets spread false claims that NATO would use ‘scheduled military exercises‘ as a pretext to intervene militarily if the elections were no to go in NATO’s favour. The false claim aims to spread fear, undermine trust in state institutions, and destabilise society before the elections. The Moldovan Ministry of Defence has confirmed there are no military exercises scheduled around the elections.
• Pro-Kremlin media claimed the EU is plotting regime change in Hungary by backing the country’s main opposition leader in the 2026 elections, allegedly using administrative, media, and foreign resources. In reality, this conspiracy theory is unsubstantiated, originating from Russian intelligence with a history of false claims, aiming to undermine Hungary’s opposition party by portraying it as tied to foreign interference, and undermining the image of the EU in the country.