The old deceiver
From diplomatic deception to puppet master fabrications, the Kremlin manipulation playbook may evolve on the surface but its fundamentals remain unchanged.
On Tuesday, 18 March, Putin and US President Donald Trump had a telephone conversation discussing a potential 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine. A proposal that Ukraine had already endorsed during US-Ukraine talks in Jeddah.
The Kremlin published a readout of Tuesday’s call which offers a masterclass in information manipulation. The carefully crafted manipulative Kremlin narrative deceitfully positions Putin as a ‘rational peacemaker’ while effectively turning the ceasefire offer down yet again and embedding multiple long-standing propaganda narratives about Ukraine.
This is entirely consistent with Moscow’s three-year-long strategy of attempting to claim ownership over the peace narrative while relentlessly pursuing war.
The Kremlin’s fabricated reality
The Kremlin’s language reveals its standard approach to negotiations: appearing constructive while setting impossible preconditions. Repeatedly referring to ‘the root causes of the crisis’, the Kremlin is essentially demanding large parts of Europe to turn back time to cement Russian imperialism. It accepts nothing less than a de facto capitulation of Ukraine, a change of its political leadership, and the West giving up on its own security to appease Russia. Hence, the Kremlin insists on ‘the complete cessation of providing [Kyiv] with foreign military aid’. Putin is simply repeating his maximalist demands now wrapped in ‘diplomatic’ language.
As we have seen repeatedly since 2022, Russia’s conditions for ‘peace’ amount to Ukraine’s surrender and dismemberment. Moscow cynically frames Ukraine’s defence as ‘barbaric acts of terrorism’, fabricating an alternative reality where Russia is not the aggressor but a reasonable actor seeking ‘comprehensive, reliable, and lasting’ solutions despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Meanwhile, Russian attacks go on unabated.
This diplomatic sleight of hand serves the sole purpose of trying to legitimise Russia’s unjustified war against Ukraine once again. At the same time, it attempts to fracture Western unity by questioning the agency and relevance of both Ukraine and the European Union along with its member states. For the Kremlin there is more at stake than Ukraine.
A tale of two Romanias
The Kremlin’s disinformation machine has also set its sights on Romania, fabricating an upside down world where the EU supposedly controls Romania’s judicial system like puppet masters.
Pro-Kremlin outlets have frantically spread baseless claims that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen personally orchestrated the prosecution of the former presidential candidate Calin Georgescu and even threatened to restrict Romania’s EU funding unless he was removed from the electoral process.
These feverish conspiracy theories, fuelled by Russia’s notoriously unreliable Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), lack any connection to reality. The real situation is far more mundane: the Romanian authorities charged Georgescu with multiple criminal counts including promoting fascist organisations and election finance violations, following their own legal procedures and finally putting a full stop on Georgescu’s presidential bid.
Unsurprisingly, pro-Kremlin disinformation has framed this straightforward legal process as ‘EU tyranny‘, portraying Romania as a helpless victim of ‘Brussels despotism’. This manufactured narrative serves Moscow’s broader strategy of undermining trust in democratic institutions while positioning pro-Kremlin candidates as ‘popular victims’ of Western persecution.
Don’t miss the latest FIMI report
The European External Action Service (EEAS) yesterday released its third report on foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) operations, exposing further details on Russia’s relentless disinformation machinery.
No surprise to anyone following the Kremlin’s activities, undermining support for Ukraine remains Moscow’s primary objective, alongside systematic interference in European elections throughout 2024.
According to the report, Russia and China continue refining their manipulation tactics, with Beijing expanding its global media footprint while concealing involvement through proxies. Though operating independently, their narratives notably converged in blaming NATO for ‘escalation’.
Both increasingly deploy AI tools and elaborate deception networks that function like icebergs – visible state channels above water, vast covert networks beneath. The full report on the EEAS website offers more insights into these fast-evolving threats.
Don’t be deceived.
Also raising our eyebrows this week:
- Sputnik, a state-run part of the Kremlin’s propaganda apparatus, has churned out another dangerous narrative, claiming Germany is coercing Afghan refugees into fighting for Ukraine by threatening 2,300 migrants with deportation. This fabricated story, presented without a single piece of evidence, serves to both instil fear and anxieties among migrant communities in Germany, and deflect attention from Russia’s own well-documented practice of recruiting foreign nationals, such as migrant workers and students, from countries including Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and multiple nations of Africa to feed its ongoing war against Ukraine. In addition to trying to incite migrant communities in Germany, this projection tactic — accusing others of exactly what Russia itself is doing — has become a standard feature in the Kremlin’s disinformation arsenal.
- Pro-Kremlin outlets have circulated an absurd claim that Western powers are plotting President Zelenskyy’s demise because, apparently, ‘he knows too much’. This sinister conspiracy theory, complete with dramatic scenarios of poisoning or mysterious ‘disappearances’, aims to undermine Ukraine’s democratically-elected leadership and drive a wedge between Ukraine and its international supporters. Such fabrications reflect Moscow’s persistent efforts to delegitimise and smear President Zelenskyy, whose leadership has become emblematic of Ukrainian resistance since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
- Kremlin propagandists have advanced alarming false claims that NATO is planning ‘terrorist attacks’ or ‘strikes’ on Russian ships, pipelines, and infrastructure in the Baltic Sea and elsewhere. This unfounded accusation exemplifies Russia’s recurring tactic of attributing malicious intent to others while distracting from its own destabilising activities. In reality, NATO launched its Baltic Sentry operation in response to suspicious incidents damaging critical undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. This worn-out ‘NATO aggression’ narrative continues to serve as a false justification for Russia’s own provocative and escalatory actions, while facts and reality are consistently proving the narrative to be false.
