Thursday, September 18, 2025

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. They appear on our site with the permission of their original publisher and reflect the views of the authors and not necessarily the position of StopFake’s editorial board.

Propaganda war against Ukraine’s aspirations to gain Tomos on autocephaly

By Oleksandr Sagan , theologist, for Lb.ua Among the external factors opposing the receipt by the Orthodox Ukrainians of Tomos from the Patriarch of Constantinople,...

Militarised Disinformation: When Highway Renovation becomes a Western Attack “to the East”

By EU vs Disinfo This week, the pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign zoomed into Europe. Its magnifying glass focused on highway D1 in the Czech Republic, connecting...

Kremlin Watch Briefing: How sanctioned Russians are benefitting from the World Cup

Topics of the Week The Brexit campaign had close links to Russia and its ambassador to the UK According to Donald Trump, Crimea is a part of Russia because...

There’s a big difference between the number of people who worry about fake news...

Plus: Facebook looks to hire “news credibility specialists,” and Reuters tries to figure out if highly partisan sites are gaining traction in and outside...

What makes people distrust science? Surprisingly, not politics

By Bastiaan T Rutjens, for Aeon Today, there is a crisis of trust in science. Many people – including politicians and, yes, even presidents –...

‘Captain Calamity’ recognizes the Donetsk People’s Republic

By Polygraph Tsargrad News outlet owned by Kremlin-linked oligarch Konstantin Malofeev "The People's Republic of Donetsk is recognized by the Scottish island of Forvik, which previously announced...

Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally

By Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia, Filippo Menczer, for The Conversation Social media are among the primary sources of news in the U.S. and across the world. Yet users...

Russian media focus on ‘first ever’ decline in number of white Americans

By Paul Goble, Window on Eurasia Russian media outlets are giving prominent play to a report by the US Bureau of the Census that “for...

One image, 4 x disinformation about migrants

By EU vs Disinfo On May 14, news agency “News Front” published a story including an image of “Kosovan and Albanian migrants storming EU borders”...

Pension reform in Russia in 2018 and Putin in 2005. What changed?

By Polygraph Vladimir Putin President of Russia I am opposed to raising the retirement age . As long as I am president, no such decision will be...