Saturday, September 20, 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.

Non-Political Nature of Russian Population Both Helps and Hurts Kremlin, New Study Says

By Paul Goble, Window on Eurasia The depoliticization of the Russian population via the revival of archaic values provides the regime with a reserve of...

Chief Editor: RT is like “a defence ministry”

By EU vs Disinfo The chief editor of RT (Russia Today), Margarita Simonyan, cannot be blamed for lack of openness about the nature of the...

War in Ukraine: A struggle over Russia’s identity

By Janusz Bugajski, for CEPA As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its fifth year, two recently published books illuminate the fundamental motives for Moscow’s ongoing offensive....

Kremlin Watch Briefing: “Normal course of diplomacy” between the United States and Russia?

Topics of the Week “Normal course of diplomacy”: The Trump administration has scheduled talks to be held in late January between the head of US...

The “Chechen” Clone of Instagram: Not as Good – Part I

By Polygraph Ramzan Kadyrov Head of Chechnya “There is a new social network being tested in Chechnya @ Mylistory, which is as good as the foreign ones” Source:...

Putin Invaded Ukraine to Prevent ‘Ukrainian’ Ideas from Spreading into Russia, Shmelyev Says

The main reason Vladimir Putin invaded Crimea and the Donbass, Aleksandr Shmelyev says, is that he feared that the ideas that had animated Ukrainians...

“Rough…Brutal… Immoral… Interference” in Russia’s Internal Affairs

By Polygraph Dmitry Novikov Deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma’s foreign affairs committee “The appearance of a Boris Nemtsov plaza in Washington is interference in Russia’s...

Moldovan Parliament Speaker Passes Law Against Russian Propaganda

By RFE/RL The speaker of Moldova's parliament, Andrian Candu, has signed legislation appointing seven new government ministers along with a law that bans Russian "media...

Netizen Report: Iranian authorities are blocking international web traffic and messaging platforms

By byNetizen Report Team, for Global Voices Global Voices Advocacy's Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in Internet rights...

Automated, live fact-checks during the State of the Union? The Tech & Check Cooperative’s...

Is automated fact-checking the “holy grail” for this corner of journalism? By Christine Schmidt, for NiemanLab Instead of watching the upcoming State of the Union address with...