[Please Note: This post uses excerpts from the investigative series on the
EXPOSE Network.]
On both sides of the Atlantic we have been given the impression that Russia is running a large scale propaganda and disinformation campaign against numerous countries. Of course Russia operate state propaganda to some extent. All developed nations try to spin information in their favour. Any realist knows this and
'caveat emptor' should always be applied to anything any government tells us.
However, NATO and EU aligned states are categorically asserting that
Kremlin disinformation threatens to undermine our entire society. So it is with good reason that we should be clear about the nature of this threat.
Among a slew of claims, we have been told the Russian disinformation effort has enabled the Kremlin to successfully influence the 2016 U.S. election, sow multiple false counter narratives, muddying the waters in the
Skripal and MH17 investigations, sway the Brexit referendum and destabilise the Ukraine and other sovereign nations. If so, then it is undoubtedly the most powerful and effective disinformation operation ever devised.
According to the
Director of the FBI Christopher Wray these
"malign influence operations" pose a
"significant counterintelligence threat." There have been
twitter and facebook purges of
"alleged" Kremlin bot accounts; Russian
"fake news" has been an ever present meme on the MSM's 24hr news cycle for at least three years; governments across the West have continually
pushed for censorship legislation to tackle the scourge of Russian disinformation and talking heads in the media consistently state Kremlin disinformation as a known fact.
Comment: See also: