Almost daily, Scott Cullinane speaks with members of the United States Congress about the russian war in Ukraine. As a lobbyist for the nonprofit Razom, part of his job is to convince them of Ukraine's need for greater American support to survive.
But as lawmakers debated a $95 billion package that includes about $60 billion in aid for kyiv, Cullinane noted a rise in narratives alleging corruption in Ukraine. What caught his attention is that these were the same talking points promoted by the Russian disinformation apparatus.
Therefore, when the Washington Post public investigation into an extensive and coordinated Russian campaign to influence American public opinion to deny aid to Ukraine, Cullinane says he was not surprised.
“This problem has been getting worse and growing for years,” he told the Voice of America. “I believe Russia's best chance of victory is not on the battlefield, but through information operations aimed at Western capitals, including Washington.”
The investigation of post It is based on more than 100 documents collected by a European intelligence service.
The files exposed a Kremlin-linked campaign in which “political strategists and trolls “have written thousands of news articles, social media posts and fabricated comments that promote American isolationism, raise fears about US border security and attempt to amplify economic and racial tensions in the United States,” the American newspaper reported.
Social networks
One of the main methods for spreading this type of misinformation is social media, according to Roman Osadchuk, a researcher at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Laboratory and an expert in propaganda and influence campaigns.
“The process begins with a Russian post on a small website or social media account. It is then picked up by a small Russian Telegram channel, which is subsequently shared by a larger channel with more subscribers,” Osadchuk said.
From there, someone will translate the content into English and share it, for example, on X.
“This is how Russian disinformation can spread quickly within the English-speaking community X,” Osadchuk said.
In an article published on March 8, the Washington Post cited Microsoft and social media intelligence company Graphika as saying that some articles created within this operation may have been first published on well-known sites such as doppelgangersor doubles.
Osadchuk told the VOA that these are misleading replicas of legitimate media websites. They include fake items and are often removed only to be replaced by clones with slightly different web addresses.
“No one would know about the existence of these sites unless they are promoted on social media platforms. However, as soon as they are detected, social networks block them. So the Russians quickly replace the banned sites with their clones,” said.
world effect
In interviews with US media, two influential Republicans said they believe the propaganda has influenced their base and some of their colleagues.
“It is absolutely true. We see, coming directly from Russia, attempts to mask communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even heard in comments in the House of Representatives,” said the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Camera, Mike Turner, in an interview with cnn.
In an interview with the American news website puckMichael McCaul, head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said: “Unfortunately, Russian propaganda has reached the United States and infected a good part of my party's base.”
Serhiy Kudelia, a political scientist at Baylor University, says the Kremlin's messaging is effective because it plays on existing fears.
He says disinformation seeks to reinforce already held beliefs, such as the waste of aid to Ukraine, or fuel existing anger and energize opposition to sending aid.
“When such alignment occurs, it is easier to push disinformation and fabricated news that would be accepted as credible by large numbers of people, including members of Congress, as it reinforces their prior beliefs,” Kudelia said.
“Once fabricated stories enter mainstream public debates, it becomes almost impossible to debunk them or separate truth from lies,” he said.
The disinformation campaign is similar to those seen in Europe. Both seek to diminish support for Ukraine, undermine public trust in its institutions and polarize society, says Jakub Kalensky, senior analyst at the Helsinki-based European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats.
Kalensky, deputy team leader at the Center for Hybrid Influence, believes the Kremlin's disinformation activities have a significant effect on politics around the world.
“That's why Russia employs thousands of people for this activity. That's why they spend billions every year, because they see that it works,” he said.
But Olga Belogolova, director of the Emerging Technologies Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, says it's difficult to know how effective these propaganda efforts are.
“Russian influence operations are not always necessarily designed to get people to believe in something in particular, but to get them to believe in nothing at all,” he told the VOA. Belogolova added that claiming that the efforts succeeded in influencing public opinion “is not only irresponsible, but also dangerous.”
Necessary countermeasures
Last month, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on two individuals and two companies it says are connected to a “foreign malign influence campaign.” These include the Moscow-based Social Design Agency, its founder Ilya Gambashidze, the Russia-based Structura Group LLC and its CEO Nikolai Tupikin.
The Social Design Agency and Gambashidze are believed to be involved in the campaign described in the article from the April 8 Post.
Kalensky advises governments on how to combat disinformation and says its success requires countermeasures.
These include strengthening the detection and documentation of Russian disinformation campaigns, increasing public awareness and resilience to propaganda efforts, and preventing the aggressor from exploiting weaknesses in social media and societies.
“Finally, we must impose higher costs on information attackers. So far they have met with almost no opposition to their attacks,” Kalensky said.
For Cullinane, the Russian disinformation campaign makes his job more difficult. She says the debate over the role the United States should play in the world appears to be shifting and invoking pre-World War II isolationism.
But he remains determined. Part of his job is to find what resonates most with each legislator.
“Some offices are very focused on the human rights situation in Ukraine. Many members are very moved by the plight of religious communities in the occupied territories of Ukraine and the persecution they face from the Russian military,” Cullinane said. “Other offices are very intrigued by military reform and military innovation brought about by an active war in Ukraine.”
The national security spending bill is currently pending approval in the House.
[Esta historia se originó en el Servicio de Ucrania de la VOA]
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