Context
Stories in the ‘Context” section are not fakes. We publish them in order to provide greater insight for our readers about the techniques, methods and practices used by the Russian government in its information war.
By Polygraph Sergei Ilyin Radio Sputnik “Some of the people, supposedly repressed for political reasons, whose release Washington is calling for, have been convicted of grave crimes such as terrorism and murder. Their guilt has been completely and exhaustively proven.” Source: RIA Novosti False The trials of the three prisoners named by the author are highly suspect. On June 18, the U.S. State Department held a press briefing on “individuals…
By Sarah Hurst (@XSovietNews), for StopFake For 23 years the world chess federation, FIDE, has been held captive by one of the most cynical and fraudulent people on the planet, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. That may be about to change at last, but perhaps not for the better: former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich hopes to replace Ilyumzhinov as president of the federation. The Kremlin has no intention of losing its…
By Polygraph Vladimir Putin President of Russia “We managed to address a very difficult challenge that other countries which have hosted the Olympic Games have not been able to address so effectively.All of Sochi’s infrastructure – practically all – is very busy throughout the year. And both the coastal and mountain clusters are busy.” Source: Vladimir Putin MISLEADING Only some of the Olympic venues are somewhat busy during some parts…
By Laima Andrikiene, for EUobserver The EU and its member states are facing an organised and aggressive Russian state fake news, manipulation and disinformation campaign. Its objective is to destabilise the Western democratic order, confront and weaken states and ultimately to break up EU unity and support those that wish to destroy it. Unfortunately, given the scale of the challenge, the EU’s response so far has been dangerously inadequate. For Baltic…
By EU vs Disinfo When pro-Kremlin commentators attempt to blur the facts about MH17, they insist that any investigation that does not include Russia among the investigators cannot be considered credible (despite the fact that the only “evidence” Russia has presented was fabricated). This strategy, when an actor creates a problem and insists the problem cannot be solved without his permission and cooperation, can have multiple applications – and it…
By Polygraph Russian Foreign Ministry’s Official Twitter Account Russian Foreign Ministry “In November 1991, in her speech in Houston, ex-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said that ‘according to the estimates of the world community, it is economically feasible for only 15 million people to live in Russia.’” Source: Twitter FALSE The quote is fake. In a Twitter thread on the subject of Anglo-Russian relations, the official Russian Foreign Ministry Twitter…
By Peter Dickinson, for Atlantic Counsil US President Donald Trump made headlines ahead of the recent G7 summit in Canada by calling on his colleagues in the group of leading industrial nations to welcome Russia back into the fold. However, it seems that this was not the full extent of his advocacy for the Kremlin. According to a report published by BuzzFeed quoting two unnamed diplomatic sources, the US president also took…
By Antonis Kalogeropoulos and Richard Fletcher, for NiemanLab s Facebook moves to privilege “broadly trusted” sources in its News Feed, our research — more of which you’ll find in this year’s Reuters Digital News Report — shows that broadcasters and newspapers are more trusted than digital-born outlets across a number of countries. Earlier this year, Facebook announced that it would prioritize news from brands that its users perceive as trustworthy, as part of a response…
By Aric Toler, for Bellingcat When browsing through stories on the newly-established media outlet USAReally.com, you may think that you are reading a procedural-generated site that exists entirely from search engine optimization tricks, stealing articles from more established outlets and reposting them as if they were original. However, a closer inspection shows that there are no advertisements on the site — no banners, pop-ups, Google AdSense frames, or any other…
By EU vs Disinfo The downing of flight MH17 has been one of the most lied-about events in recent years, and the disinformation campaign surrounding the tragedy shows no sign of abating. Revelations that a Russian missile shot down the passenger airplane over eastern Ukraine in July 2014, killing all 298 people on board, have triggered a flurry of fresh disinformation stories from Moscow. The charge of Russian involvement was made on May 24…
