The Kremlin’s disinformation peddlers have long since tried to build the perception of Russia being allegedly under siege by malicious external forces, usually of Anglo-Saxon origins. This has been one of the red threads weaving through the Kremlin’s disinformation about Russia’s war against Ukraine. Incidentally, in a pendulum-like motion, as the support for Ukraine swells, so does the volume of the pro-Kremlin voices accusing the West of aggression against Russia and demonstratively drawing meaningless lines in the sand, based on thinly veiled threats of a nuclear holocaust.
This week was no exception as the Kremlin unleashed a fresh barrage of lies and accusations about Western troops in Ukraine, regurgitated false alarmist claims about ‘Western interference’ in Georgia, and complained about EU plans to put frozen Russian oligarch money to good use.
Enemy at the gates
Since French President Emmanuel Macron publicly entertained the possibility of deploying troops to Ukraine, the pro-Kremlin disinformation ecosystem has been abuzz with the topic. Most prominently, commentators seemingly want to vindicate the long-running pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that the West is using Ukraine to fight a proxy war against Russia.
While debate in the West is merely theoretical at this moment, for pro-Kremlin outlets, the enemy is already at the gates. Some outlets claim that French troops are already on the frontlines in Ukraine, others that NATO is actively preparing to launch a war against Russia, and some even claim that Russia has already destroyed secret Western bases in Ukraine.
Consistently inconsistent
The Kremlin always likes to have its disinformation cake and eat it too. So, when Western leaders started announcing that Ukrainian strikes inside Russia should be allowed, the Kremlin’s disinformation launderers quickly switched from decrying a ‘Western proxy war’ to accusing Ukraine of trying to provoke a direct clash between NATO and Russia. Therefore, in the Kremlin’s depiction of Ukraine’s relationship with the West, sometimes the dog wags the tail, and sometimes it is the other way around. Whatever seems to fit pro-Kremlin disinformation needs at any given time.
‘Second front’ in Georgia
This pro-Kremlin mirror projection of accusing the West of aggression and belligerence is also currently playing out in Georgia. Now that the Georgian Parliament has overridden the will of its people as well as a presidential veto and passed the notorious ‘transparency law’, numerous pro-Kremlin voices in Georgia are actively defending the backsliding move by pushing the pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that the West wants to use Georgia to open a ‘second front’ against Russia.
These accusations of alleged Western interference and devious warmongering designs to use Georgia to fight Russia have followed the controversial law since its inception in 2023. Such designs may be merely the delusions of paranoid conspiracy theorists, but pro-Kremlin disinformation agents have pushed them to discredit and incapacitate civil society in Georgia as it has been the bulwark safeguarding the country’s path toward the EU until now.
To top it off, some pro-Kremlin outlets are even openly gleeful, embracing the Russian imperial doctrine of ‘spheres of influence’, and celebrating the passing of the ‘transparency law’ as Georgia’s pivot away from the West and toward Russia.
Thieves, thieves!
Meanwhile, on the home front, the ground was also fertile for pushing the Kremlin’s all-time favourite accusations of the evil West trying to destroy godly Russia. This time it is personal. The West is coming after the frozen assets of Russian oligarchs, so the Kremlin unleashed lofty accusations that the EU and the G7 are trying to steal hard-earned Russian money and issued threats of ‘countermeasures’. Some pro-Kremlin outlets focused on conjuring potentially devastating consequences for the West, while others used the plan to use the revenue from Russian’s frozen assets as ‘proof’ that the West is waging a hybrid war against Russia.
It is progress, not taxes
Finally, drumming up all the imaginary threats and boogeymen allegedly surrounding Russia from all sides provided a much-needed distraction from a tax hike in Russia. Apologies, not ‘tax-hike’, as in pro-Kremlin parlance. We should say, a ‘planned adjustment of the progressive scales’. Or, ‘improvement of the existing system’. Or, ‘lowering the income threshold’. At least that is how it is framed for Russian taxpayers footing the bill for Russia’s war against Ukraine. If we are to believe the Kremlin, this is not an alarming sign of rapidly emptying coffers, but rather an indication of progress. Don’t be deceived.
Article and pictures first time published on the EUvsDisinfo web page. Prepared for publication by volunteers from the Res Publica - The Center for Civil Resistance.
