The problem of timekeeping
This week, the world marked three years of Ukrainian resistance and unprecedented resilience in the face of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. European leaders gathered in Kyiv to support Ukraine and to commemorate the country’s painful yet heroic resistance that began on 24 February 2022. The G7 Leaders’ Session’s agenda featured EU leaders’ statements and public remarks paying tribute to Ukraine’s refusal to back down from Russia’s deliberate and wanton invasion, the largest war in Europe since World War II.
And yet, in a sharp departure from Moscow’s initially triumphant tone, at the three year mark, proverbial crickets were chirping in pro-Kremlin TV studios. It was as if the full-scale war did not exist, only being a ‘special military operation’ provoked by Ukraine and not having any bearing on Russia itself.
The Kremlin’s disinformation peddlers skirted around the topic, never quite recognising the three years of war. Instead, they chose to disparage EU sanctions and painted overly rosy pictures about the Russian economy. Moreover, they piled on a good measure of vilifying Ukraine, or alternatively played the role of the victim and falsely accused Europe of having aggressive designs vis-à-vis Russia.
Same old cognitive dissonance about sanctions
Besides standing in solidarity with Ukraine, the EU also adopted a 16th sanctions package against Russia. The package targets systemically important sectors of the Russian economy such as energy, trade, transport, infrastructure, and financial services.
And so, the Kremlin’s disinformation machinery started to launder its old narratives about sanctions. There was the obligatory tone of bravado, claiming that, like the previous 15 packages, these measures won’t have any impact on the Russian economy. Some tried to use the different approaches to sanctions to exacerbate the perception of a rift between the EU and the US, or to question EU internal unity. Others, like Russian MFA spokesperson Maria Zakharova, recycled the old disinformation trope that sanctions harm the EU itself more than they do Russia, or depicted the sanctions as driven by ‘Russophobia’. Zakharova’s tropes are directed as much to the Russian domestic audience as to the outside world in an attempt to divert attention away from the fragile Russian economy.
The one common thread through most pro-Kremlin spin about sanctions, however, was to focus more on individuals and sectors targeted by the EU sanctions rather than to recognise that these restrictive measures are directed at Russia as a state. The Kremlin is trying to create a perception that the Russian state need not worry.
Europe is the new ‘baddie’ in town
Of course, even the most self-deluded pro-Kremlin spin-doctors could not avoid the topic of 24 February 2022 and three years of war. The laws of physics are immutable and time keeps passing regardless of whether the Kremlin is keeping it.
Thus, in order to address the elephant in the room without acknowledging its presence, most pro-Kremlin outlets zoomed in on the outpouring of international support for Ukraine around 24 February to dismiss Ukraine as a lost cause, vilify those supporting Kyiv, and claim that Russia is, in fact, the real victim.
In all of their musings, there was clearly a new ‘baddie’ in town. While in the past, the Kremlin preferred to blame the amorphous ‘collective West’ or NATO for aggression, now Moscow has seen an opening to split transatlantic unity. So it doubles down to cast Europe as the chief aggressor and warmonger.
Falsely assuming victimhood has long been one of the Kremlin’s go-to tactics for accusing others of initiating the war that Russia started three years ago. And now that Moscow feigns an interest in peace to erode international support for Ukraine, the Kremlin’s disinformation peddlers are looking to falsely accuse Europe of being the aggressor.
Time is running out… but not for Ukraine
The Kremlin would desperately like to world to believe that time is in Russia’s favour. The Kremlin’s spin-doctors might have a problem with keeping the time, but the number of casualties Russia has sustained in the last three years are as telling a measure as the dates on the calendar.
The myth of Russia’s invincibility, which is at the core of this misleading narrative, also crumbles to dust as the Kremlin’s top diplomatic brass scrambled to Riyadh to latch onto the earliest opportunity to extricate Russia from the war it started three years ago.
Don’t be deceived – the Kremlin’s newfound affinity for diplomatic solutions is not about ensuring peace, it is about preserving Russia’s conquests in Ukraine and averting a looming economic freefall. The time might indeed be running out, but not necessarily for Ukraine. Three years of Ukrainian resistance and resilience are a testament to that.
Also on the EUvsDisinfo radar this week:
- Baltic States: the Kremlin has a long history of using Russia’s energy resources as a tool of influence, blackmail, and, sometimes, even coercion. We’ve covered the always-present disinformation angle of Moscow’s attempts to weaponise energy quite extensively So, it came as no surprise that when the Baltic States finally disconnected from the electricity grid linking them to Russia and Belarus (BRELL), the Kremlin reacted by spewing its typical disinformation-laden narratives, like proclaiming economic calamity will ensue. For example, TASS alleged that Lithuania’s withdrawal from BRELL will harm its economy. Actually, the Baltic States already stopped purchasing electricity from Russia in May 2022, and the disconnect was a solely technical measure used for technical frequency regulation and did not have any significant economic impact. Joining the EU grid increases energy independence and reduces the risk of disruptions by Russia.
- Germany: if there is one thing the Kremlin knows well, it is election meddling. Russia’s own bizarre spectacle disguised as elections is usually marred with blatant fraud, while foreign elections are usually a prime target for the Kremlin’s information manipulation and interference operations. Such was also the case for the recent Bundestag elections in Germany. The Kremlin’s information manipulators sought to sow divisions and skew perceptions for weeks leading up to the election. But the meddling does not stop once the votes are cast. The next phase is usually the attempt to dismiss the results, should they not be to the Kremlin’s liking. And, on cue, the Kremlin’s mouthpieces are now spreading false claims that Alternative for Germany (AfD) ballots were destroyed in the German election. Of course, the claims are baseless, and have been debunked by fact-checkers at Deutsche Welle, reporting by the German outlet BILD, and remarks of the State Election Officer of Hamburg. By the way, we saw the same type of claims from Moscow after the European Parliament elections in June 2024 – see our series here
- Ukraine: a core maxim of pro-Kremlin disinformation can be summarised as: when in doubt, accuse your opponents of being Nazis. We have consistently documented the Kremlin’s misuse of Nazism as a weapon of information manipulation. And yet, this remains a go-to tactic for the Kremlin’s disinformation peddlers, particularly deployed to target Ukraine. So when we hear ludicrous claims that Nazi Germany is the ideological predecessor of modern Nazi Ukraine, we know it is pure bunk. Russia’s obsession with framing Ukraine as a Nazi state serves to justify the ongoing invasion and to distract from Russia’s own historical baggage. The Kremlin has long played fast and loose with history to bolster its legitimacy, particularly regarding its World War II past.
