Russian disinformation themes. Face-saving disinformation.

Summary

By the CyberWire staff

At a glance.

Russian disinformation themes.
Face-saving disinformation.

Russian disinformation themes.

The UK's Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office, which has been tracking Russian disinformation over Russia's war against Ukraine, last week published a quick enumeration of Russian themes surrounding atrocities in Ukraine. Moscow has said, variously, that these were the work of "Ukrainian Nazis" or "western technologists," that they were "all staged," "a media campaign," "a film set," or, most implausibly, the work of "the British." In sum, the Kremlin's line is that it's all "a false provocation."

Face-saving disinformation.

Russia has claimed that the guided missile cruiser Moskva was lost due to a combination of an internal explosion followed by unfavorable weather while the damaged vessel was under tow. Most foreign intelligence services seem to have concluded that the Ukrainian account of having hit the Moskva with Neptune anti-ship missiles is correct.

A wave of intense, long-rang fire was over the weekend delivered against Ukrainian targets by Russian rocket and missile units. According to the Telegraph, Russian official source said the strikes were retaliation for Ukrainian "sabotage" and "terrorism." On Friday the Russian Ministry of Defense said that such attacks were coming, and would intensify. Military Times reports that the strikes are, in Moscow's telling, legitimate retaliation for what the Kremlin calls Ukrainian “diversions on the Russian territory.” Most foreign observers regard the attacks as revenge for the sinking of the Moskva, and as providing a slantendicular confirmation of Ukraine's account of the sinking.

The Moskva had a crew of five-hundred-ten, and, while TASS and other official sources initially claimed they'd all been evacuated from the damaged vessel, subsequent accounts eliminated the word "all," and survivors' homecoming have not been featured in Russian news sources. The Telegraph cites observers' informed speculation that casualties may have been very heavy, perhaps numbering in the hundreds, but these estimates are unconfirmed.

Some video and images that appear to show the sinking of the Moskva have appeared. These too are unconfirmed, the Guardian reports, but they appear to have been taken from one of the tugs that came to the cruiser's assistance.

Selected Reading

Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities

Russian War Report: Google refutes misleading claims about blurring Russian military assets (Atlantic Council) Thousands of posts online claim Google Maps unblurred satellite images of Russian military installations. Meanwhile, Russia hesitates to ban YouTube and a troll campaign distracts from Bucha.

Russian War Report: Russia falsely accuses Ukraine of provoking conflict even after it knew war was coming (Atlantic Council) Russia has rehashed several old narratives in their continued attempts to justify the war in Ukraine including misrepresented statements from Ukrainian officials.

Putin’s Ukraine War: Belarus dictator switches from arsonist to firefighter (Atlantic Council) Belarus dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka is trying to change his role in Vladimir Putin's Ukraine War from that of arsonist to firefighter as Belarusian public opinion firmly opposes any involvement in the conflict.

Video: Journey to Transnistria: Inside Russia’s Disinformation Bubble (New York Times) We traveled inside Transnistria, a Moscow-backed breakaway state in Moldova, to find out how Russia’s disinformation campaign stretches beyond its borders.

Russian War Report: Competing narratives about the sinking of Russia’s Moskva warship (Atlantic Council) Following Ukraine's alleged sinking of Russia's Moskva warship just off the coast of Odesa, the Kremlin's narrative as to why has continued to shift.

Russia’s Kramatorsk ‘Facts’ Versus the Evidence (bellingcat) What can open source material tell us about the attack on Kramatorsk railway station that left dozens dead?

Russia’s Bucha ‘Facts’ Versus the Evidence (bellingcat) Open source evidence appears to contradict Russian claims of elaborate fakes in Ukrainian town where dead bodies were found strewn across street.

Russia’s QAnon Followers Can’t Make Up Their Minds About Ukraine - bellingcat (bellingcat) While international followers of the conspiracy see Vladimir Putin as an ally against the ‘cabal’, the invasion has made some QAnon acolytes in Russia think twice.

Putin, Gagarin and the great lie of Russian space supremacy (The Telegraph) Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is one of his nation’s greatest heroes, representing Russian might and glory – but his triumph was a Soviet façade

Serbia accuses Ukraine and unnamed EU country of Air Serbia bomb hoaxes (Reuters) Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accused Ukraine and an unidentified EU country of being behind a series of hoax bomb threats against Air Serbia planes.

Trends

What Victory Day means for Russian identity (Washington Post) As Russia’s war against Ukraine stretches into another month, Ukrainians and Western nations are in suspense for how the Kremlin will celebrate a day dear to Russian history.

Marketplace

Facebook ‘lacks willpower’ to tackle misinformation in Africa (the Guardian) As company pursues growth on continent, it stands accused of not putting enough money into moderating content

Elon Musk Is Right About Twitter (Wired) It really is the closest thing we have to an online public square—and that's terrible for democracy. Let his takeover bid be a wakeup call.

Elon Musk wants a free speech utopia. Technologists clap back. (Washington Post) Elon Musk’s vision for Twitter as an un-policed free speech town square is a utopian vision of the Internet that has failed in practice and does not take into account the realities of the world. The company tried it for years, and instead it learned it needed to moderate speech more aggressively.

DuckDuckGo insists it didn’t ‘purge’ piracy sites from search results (The Verge) DuckDuckGo insists piracy search suppression is in error

Technologies, Techniques, and Standards

Fascinating New Study Suggests (Again) That Twitter Moderation Is Biased Against Misinformation, Not Conservatives (Techdirt) Behold! An actually interesting academic study exploring whether or not Twitter moderation has an anti-conservative bias! This is something many of us have been asking for for a while, but it&#8217…

Elon Musk Demonstrates How Little He Understands About Content Moderation (Techdirt) Lots of talk yesterday as Elon Musk made a hostile takeover bid for all of Twitter. This was always a possibility, and one that we discussed before in looking at how little Musk seemed to understan…

Design and Innovation

Google’s AI-Powered ‘Inclusive Warnings’ Feature Is Very Broken (VIce) A feature rolling out this month uses algorithms to suggest edits in Google Docs, but falls into the same bias traps it’s trying to prevent.

Legislation, Policy, and Regulation

Russia defence ministry seeks greater secrecy on military deaths in Ukraine (Reuters) The Russian defence ministry has proposed that relatives of soldiers killed in Ukraine should have to apply to military rather than civilian authorities for compensation payments, imposing an extra level of secrecy around its war losses.

Putin’s Generation Z: Kremlin pro-war propaganda targets young Russians (Atlantic Council) Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine War is not going according to plan, with Ukrainian forces rebuffing attempts to capture Kyiv and forcing a general Russian retreat from the north of the country. Nevertheless, there remains no end in sight to hostilities, with every indication that Moscow is preparing for a long campaign. As the Russian military begins a new offensive in eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin is accelerating efforts to indoctrinate young Russians and consolidate the pro-war consensus on the domestic front for a further generation.

The next National Defense Strategy is coming. These seven points are key to understanding it. (Atlantic Council) Our experts break down what we know so far about the document that will guide the Pentagon's policy making in the coming years, and what burning questions remain.