Wednesday, March 25, 2026

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.

Actor ‘can’t stop laughing’ as Russian ambassador tweets ‘terrorist’ photo

Actor Kal Penn has found himself mistaken for a terrorist -- again. After his character, Kumar Patel, was flagged as an Islamic extremist in the...

What You Need to Know About Russian Social Networks to Conduct Open-Source Research

This article is part of a larger guidebook by RuNet Echo to help people learn how to conduct open-source research on the Russian Internet....

Russian Mom Faces Years In Prison For Sharing Posts On Ukraine

In Yekaterina Vologzheninova's opinion, the only things she might be guilty of are her daughter's messy bedroom and unwashed dishes. Authorities in Russia, however, believe...

TV Witch Hunt Drives Human Rights Activist Out of Russia

A human rights activist from a small town in the Urals has fled to Paris seeking asylum after a documentary on state TV channel...

Publishers Slammed by Ukrainian Diplomats, Media for Showing Crimea as Part of Russia

Two renowned publishing houses have found themselves at the heart of a media storm for featuring maps showing the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea...

Russia Today Airs Bizarre Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theory About Hillary Clinton

RT, or Russia Today, the overseas propaganda network of Vladimir Putin, is not known for its fealty to reality or basic standards of journalism....

Finnish researcher: Russia ramping up its information war

Russia has intensified its ongoing information war against the West since the onset of the Ukraine crisis in 2014. Finnish author Saara Jantunen says...

Exploring Russia’s 53rd Brigade’s MH17 Convoy with StoryMap

As part of our new report examining the open source evidence of the downing of Flight MH17 (read it here) we tracked the movement...

How Kremlin propaganda works in Europe

Despite the repeated statements by EU leaders about the need to fight back the Russian propaganda, the Kremlin media continues its "brainwashing". Politics, Religion, World...

How the Dutch Safety Board Proved Russia Faked MH17 Evidence

With the release of the Dutch Safety Board report into the downing of Flight MH17 it is now possible to compare the evidence gathered...