Thursday, May 1, 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.

Dutch-Polish ‘content factory’ to counter Russian propaganda

The Netherlands and Poland are to launch a Russian-language news agency in order to counter Russian propaganda. Bert Koenders, the Dutch foreign minister, told press...

Russian censor takes aim against Novaya Gazeta

Russia’s Roskomnadzor has issued the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta with a warning over bad language cited in a literary text.  As the second warning...

British Bank Freezes Russian News Agency Rossiya Segodnya’s Account

London-based bank Barclays has frozen the accounts of major state-run Russian news agency Rossiya Segodnya, in a move that may be tied to Britain's sanctions on its firebrand chief,...

Mission Journal: Crimea’s journalists in exile as Russia muzzles free press

"First they asked if my parents had any guns or drugs in the apartment, then they showed my picture to my mother and asked...

Open-Source Information Reveals Pro-Kremlin Web Campaign

In April of this year, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Guardian reported on the website вштабе.рф, a large photo gallery of pro-Russian memes and “demotivator”...

Snyder’s ‘Bloodlands’ released in Russian despite deadlock to publish in Russia

Timothy Snyder’s book about the mass killings of 14 million non-combatants during World War II by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany was released...

Russia Bans Internet Database Archive

Internet users in Russia will no longer be able to access a massive database of cached webpages, apparently due to one single website authorities...

Swedish MTG Becomes Latest Target in Russian Media-Ownership Rules

Sweden’s Modern Times Group AB is the latest company to face being pushed out of Russia as President Vladimir Putin’s media law tightens control...

Digital Investigators Try To Disperse Fog Of War In Ukraine

In June 2014, Russian soldier Stanislav Tarasov posted on a social-media site a photo of himself standing in front of a military convoy against a...

Conspiracy theorists will truly believe anything, says science

Admit it, you love to hate-read the conspiracy theory BS your friend or relative regurgitates all over Facebook. But have you ever asked yourself...