Ukrainian Media Identifies US Russian Disinformation Network

Ukrain­ian media has report­ed on a detailed inves­ti­ga­tion into the sources of Russ­ian dis­in­for­ma­tion orig­i­nat­ing from the Unit­ed States. Accord­ing to the arti­cle titled “Inves­ti­ga­tion: Where does Russ­ian dis­in­for­ma­tion incu­bate in the US:”

Decem­ber 14, 2022 The war in Ukraine is being decid­ed on the bat­tle­fields in the south and east of the coun­try. But how it’s dis­cussed in Amer­i­ca helps shape those bat­tle­fields. Mil­i­tary aid from the West has helped Ukrain­ian forces turn the tide. Eco­nom­ic aid has allowed the Ukrain­ian econ­o­my to cling to life after a third of it was ripped away by the inva­sion. The Krem­lin pre­pared for this. Over the years, it has done its best to cul­ti­vate a dis­cor­dant cho­rus of pro-Russ­ian and anti-estab­lish­ment voic­es. They slan­der Ukraine, vin­di­cate Rus­si­a’s impe­ri­al­ism, and blame NATO for Russia’s war of aggres­sion. Many of these voic­es spread false or mis­lead­ing infor­ma­tion. The Kremlin’s hand isn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly behind every bit of fake news. But many who write mis­in­for­ma­tion also inter­act with peo­ple and orga­ni­za­tions linked with the Krem­lin who use cul­tur­al events and dias­po­ra out­reach as a guise for lob­by­ing and spread­ing pro­pa­gan­da. These orga­ni­za­tions don’t go unno­ticed by the law. For exam­ple, the U. S. gov­ern­ment accused one Russ­ian-Amer­i­can, Ele­na Bran­son, of lead­ing ”a years-long cam­paign to iden­ti­fy the next gen­er­a­tion of Amer­i­can lead­ers, cul­ti­vate infor­ma­tion chan­nels, and shape U. S. pol­i­cy in favor of Russ­ian objec­tives. This case high­lights the breadth of Rus­si­a’s relent­less intel­li­gence and malign influ­ence activ­i­ties tar­get­ing the Unit­ed States.” Krem­lin pro­pa­gan­da more aggres­sive as Rus­sia steps up attacks Read Also Krem­lin pro­pa­gan­da more aggres­sive as Rus­sia steps up attacks Read the sto­ry Peo­ple who inter­act with these kinds of orga­ni­za­tions and pub­lish mis­lead­ing infor­ma­tion aren’t nec­es­sar­i­ly Krem­lin agents or think of them­selves as such. They may be sin­cere in their beliefs. But it’s instruc­tive to know where they appear and with whom. The Kyiv Inde­pen­dent mapped these con­nec­tions to allow read­ers to draw their own informed con­clu­sions about the cred­i­bil­i­ty of these peo­ple and orga­ni­za­tions. This arti­cle pro­files sev­er­al peo­ple and groups with alleged ties to the Krem­lin. The visu­al map that accom­pa­nies the arti­cle dis­plays the peo­ple in their orbit and how they’re relat­ed. Click on the icons to read a brief dossier of a spe­cif­ic com­men­ta­tor or organization.

Read the rest here.

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) has pre­vi­ous­ly report­ed exten­sive­ly on a num­ber of fig­ures and orga­ni­za­tions iden­ti­fied in the inves­ti­ga­tion, including:

• Kon­stan­tin Malofeev
• Strate­gic Cul­ture Foundation
• RT (for­mer­ly known as Rus­sia Today)
• Rus­sia Insider
• Charles Baus­man