Dt is their goal to destabilize Western democracies and throw them into chaos, the Russian propagandists no longer make a secret of. “We got involved, we are doing it and we will continue to do it,” entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin wrote just recently on the social network VKontakte, a kind of Russian Facebook. What was meant were the “Midterms”, the midterm elections in the United States. Prigozhin, who has become rich from restaurants, is called “Putin’s cook” and commands his own “troll factory”. His employees anonymously spread fake news on the Internet and try to influence voters. “Flooding the network” – that’s how critical observers describe it.
The pressure from Russian disinformation campaigns is growing. The heterogeneous Corona protest movement in particular is happy to accept the “alternative facts” from the Kremlin. The scene of vaccination opponents, conspiracy believers and right-wing extremists is increasingly becoming Putin’s mouthpiece. The Russian manipulation campaigns were therefore the focus of the traditional autumn talks held by the Hessian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution on Tuesday evening in Wiesbaden. The motto of the debate: “Attack on the truth – How disinformation endangers our free democracy”.
Andreas Fahrner, head of evaluation at the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), who himself lived in Russia for a long time, the journalist Julia Smirnova, who now researches false Russian campaigns at the London think tank Institute for Strategic Dialogue, the communications and media trainer Tom Buschardt and Journalist Florian Flade, who works for the research network of NDR, WDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung.
“Russia’s propaganda just wants to confuse”
In the words of Florian Flade, “the range of psychological warfare carried out by Russia has long been underestimated”. The tactics of the Russian fake news distributors are nothing new. “Deepening the gap fungus”: That’s how the main administration A, the foreign secret service of the GDR, understood its task, said Flade. Nevertheless, he sees an elementary difference to the Soviet era: “Russia’s propaganda no longer wants to convince, only to confuse.”
And the techniques that are used today have become more diverse and effective. Julia Smirnova presented some of the campaigns. Then, for example, websites of well-known German media are recreated one-to-one, put on the Internet and equipped with propaganda articles. At first glance, it looks like serious media are now arguing for lifting sanctions on Russia or opening the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The language of the articles is awkward, and there are also spelling mistakes in the texts (Minister Habeck becomes Minister Habek), but at first glance not everyone notices the pages as fakes. “I would put my hand in the fire if my students didn’t notice it at first,” said Tom Buschardt, the media trainer.
The amount of Russian cyber campaigns is likely to increase. The BND chief analyst Fahrner assumes this. Because Putin and the Kremlin are under pressure. They did not count on the military setbacks in Ukraine. The “imperial agenda” pursued by the Russian President, “the collection of Russian soil”, could now suddenly fail. For the West, the starting position is therefore better than expected. “We are more resilient than we think,” says Fahrner.
With their fake campaigns, the Russian trolls are targeting people’s fears, explained Julia Smirnova. For example, a false report was spread via a website and social media that Ukrainian refugees had brought the monkeypox virus to Germany. The propaganda also deliberately spread concerns about poverty as a result of the energy crisis. The goal of such campaigns is always the same: the aim is to weaken solidarity with Ukraine in Europe. However, anyone who wants to counter such propaganda should not downplay the concerns of the population, Smirnova warned: “We have to create space to talk rationally about these fears.”
Scientific investigations necessary
What else can help to better defend against Russian attacks via social media and fake websites? There is no blanket answer, no simple recipe for success. Instead, as the discussion made clear, a whole bundle of measures is necessary. Strengthening the media skills of the population is part of this. Education and “fact checks” also help to uncover the lies of the information warriors. Florian Flade believes there is an urgent need to study the spread of conspiracy stories and fake news more scientifically in order to better find out why the propaganda resonates with so many people.
Hesse’s Minister of the Interior, Peter Beuth, who opened the autumn talks with a keynote speech, also made a proposal himself. The CDU politician appeals to citizens to get more involved. “Anyone can counter the spread of fake news on social networks, but also in personal conversations,” he said. The situation is too serious to stay out.
