Russian propaganda: Why is no one stopping RT DE?

WWhen the media report something “on their own account”, they reveal under this headline what is changing in an editorial office, who will become the new boss or why the layout is changing. How to circumvent European Union sanctions is a surprising content of this category. At RT DE, the former broadcaster Russia Today, that’s exactly what it’s about “in its own right”. Detailed instructions follow on how and where RT can still be found in September – although the EU Commission decided on March 1 that the Russian propaganda medium should no longer be available in the member states.

The EU was concerned that Russian disinformation salvoes could sway debates in member states. Russia is running “a systematic international campaign of media manipulation and falsification of facts”, the EU Commission justified its ban. But more than six months later, RT is still present. How does RT do it and why is nobody stopping this disinformation campaign?

“Russia was definitely prepared for the sanctions,” says Felix Kartte from the RESET foundation initiative, which actually advocates better democratic control of large Internet companies. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, however, Kartte has also been fighting on another field. Together with other think tanks and experts, he initiated the Disinformation Situation Center, which analyzes Russia’s digital campaign against Ukraine, but also directly against European publics. “Russia has both the will and the resources to circumvent the sanctions.”

Since then, Kartte and his colleagues at the Disinformation Situation Center have been writing down how this works in practice. Their reports show the whole range of Russian circumvention tactics that limit the effectiveness of the ban on Russian propaganda media: The Sputnik portal, which like RT is subject to the EU ban, quickly renamed itself “satellite” on Telegram. RT, in turn, continues to operate its website and fills it with daily updates about a gloomy world west of Russia: the gas crisis. mass protests. The imminent overload of pediatric practices in Germany.

The range increases again

RT DE only had to change the web address a bit, but search engines still find it. Just in case, RT lists alternative addresses if another one is blocked.

In addition, EU sanctions naturally only apply in the member states. If you use VPN access, you can virtually move your presence to another country. In Russia, opposition members use this to access free media – in the EU, RT advises using a VPN to be able to receive the propaganda comfortably past the sanctions.

Just days after the invasion began, Russia unveiled another weapon from its disinformation arsenal that could hardly be sanctioned. Because the profiles of RT could no longer be reached in most social media, the accounts of the Russian embassies stepped in. Different embassies in different countries spread the same lies – for example about the alleged war crimes in Bucha. When the Russian embassy in Berlin claimed the atrocities there were staged, Twitter took an unusual step and reduced the reach of some Russian government accounts. This meant that their content was now being shown to fewer readers.

Unlike in the case of state disinformation slingers like RT, the networks are reluctant to completely remove the official user accounts of ministries and embassies from their platforms. They are not covered by the ban anyway. And so they remain part of Russia’s evasion strategy.