After our research on which websites are spreading pro-Russian narratives and talking points that benefit Moscow, we decided to take a closer look at websites in German. During the analysis, we found publications that quote Russian state media, that receive back quotes from them, and that spread claims that could play into the hands of the Kremlin.
After our research on which websites are spreading pro-Russian narratives and talking points that benefit Moscow, we decided to take a closer look at websites in German. During the analysis, we found publications that quote Russian state media, that receive back quotes from them, and that spread claims that could play into the hands of the Kremlin.
During the content analysis, we found that there are several key areas among pro-Russian narratives in Europe in general and in Germany in particular. Let’s highlight a few of them and provide examples below.
‘The West and NATO are to blame for the war in Ukraine.’
‘Ukraine is a proxy state for the West.’
‘Ukraine and the West are losing; Russia is winning.’
‘Russia is fighting NATO forces in Ukraine.’
‘The French and other NATO troops are already present in Ukraine.’
‘Nuclear threats from Russia.’
‘The inexpediency of Western support for Ukraine.’
‘The West is declining and losing influence in the world.’
‘Favorable coverage for right-wing radical parties in light of the elections.’
‘Fake news about the Ukrainian government sending children to the frontlines, as well as pregnant women being sent to the trenches.’
'Shifting the blame for the war to the West’
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russian propaganda machine has been blaming Ukraine, Western countries, NATO, and the EU for the war. Moscow claims that it felt threatened by Ukraine, that it came to protect the people of Donbas, and that NATO’s eastward expansion is to blame. This way, Russia is trying to justify its invasion and shift the blame for the war to the West.
“The attacks on eastern Ukraine, which began in 2014, i.e. after the Maidan coup, were carried out from Kiev. Russia has repeatedly (since 2014) pushed for a peaceful solution for eastern Ukraine. Putin demanded, bead and argued. But he was ignored until February 2022.” (https://apolut.net/die-auswanderhilfe-moya-rossiya-von-tom-j-wellbrock/)
According to all of the propaganda bases, the Kremlin media are convinced that Russian troops have suffered almost no losses, while the Ukrainian army is suffering high casualties. The Kremlin media presents any Russian advance, even the capture of a village at the cost of several hundred soldiers, as a great achievement. Instead, the Russians downplay their own losses. The goal is to instill fear and force concessions to Putin’s demands.
“In Ukraine, the sale of the two-legged human material is currently underway. There, the decision-makers may have put many billions in their pockets and until the last Ukrainian is burned, this profitable business model is also to be maintained.” (https://qpress.de/2024/04/29/ukraine-demokratie-frieden-menschenrechte-weg/)
“In addition, there is the possibility that a Ukrainian army, which is exhausted and bled out by years of failed offensives, will eventually fall victim to a Russian counterattack, which would lead to far greater territorial losses than Ukraine has suffered so far. The French ex-president offers a diplomatic way out. The commentators react with “pro-Putin” insults. What’s behind the witch hunt.”(https://www.telepolis.de/features/Sarkozy-verunglimpft-weil-er-unbequeme-Wahrheit-ueber-die-Ukraine-ausspricht-9293539.html)
‘“Nazis” in Ukraine’
The Kremlin media used traditional ‘Nazi’ disinformation to discredit all Ukrainians and justify the war. In this way, Russian and pro-Russian propaganda also diverts attention from the fact that it was the Putin regime that started the aggressive and neocolonial war against a sovereign state, in violation of international law.
"My narrative was not consistent with the narrative of NATO, and maybe that was a problem. The narrative of NATO tries to make us believe that there has never been a conflict between Ukrainian citizens around the Maidan in Ukraine, but that everything is only an invention of Russia. In my opinion and based on the events I have observed on the ground since 2014, it is just as true that Russia invaded and bombed in a criminal way as the fact that the Maidan was a nationalist coup, while on the other side of the trenches there were fighters and families from Ukraine who are set against Kiev. I know it’s extremely unpopular to say that today, but I’m a journalist and not a PR man.”(https://www.telepolis.de/features/Wie-die-Taz-einen-Artikel-eines-Ukraine-Kriegsreporters-manipulierte-9186628.html)
‘Russia is fighting NATO forces in Ukraine’
After Russian propaganda promised to capture Kyiv in two days and then two weeks, Moscow is looking for excuses for the failure of its so-called “special operation.” The simplest excuse is that almost the entire world is fighting against Russia. However, in reality, only the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which use modern Western weapons provided by the allies, are confronting the Russian invaders. Only foreign volunteers who joined the Ukrainian Army are on the ground, not any official forces. By faking the presence of French troops in Ukraine, the Kremlin creates a pretext for itself to resort to threats.
“Together with a representative of the arms producer Diehl (anti-aircraft system IRIS-T), Habeck had announced during his visit to Kiev that Ukraine had to win the NATO war against Russia.”(https://apolut.net/zwerge-erklaeren-russland-den-krieg/)
“But at the same time, it legitimizes the regime as a partner of Germany and supports those tendencies in the Federal Republic that would like to participate in a NATO war.”(https://apolut.net/ukraine-soldaten-als-deutsche/)
When the Russian Federation realizes that the democratic, civilized world supports Ukraine and its adherence to international law, the last argument is the threat of nuclear weapons. Russian officials speak out, and pro-Russian media instill fear in Europe.
Pro-Russian media convinces us that we should stop supporting Ukraine and abandon sanctions against Russia as a goal of all narratives. This is the main goal of the Putin regime: to make Ukraine defenseless against the offensive of the Russian invading forces.
“How the USA cracked Europe with the Ukraine war and China’s rise. Europe suffers and joins in. Germany is the main loser of the US collision with Russia and China. Western Europe, especially Germany, is the big loser. Cheap Russian energy has been replaced by expensive ones from the USA. This has undermined the competitiveness of the German manufacturing industry and contributed to even higher European inflation. Europe has also lost Russia’s huge market, where it sold industrial goods. In addition, it has lost the wasteful expenses of the Russian elite. Threat from Russia a mirage. Above all, however, the assertion of a Russian threat to Europe is not valid. This weakness indeed speaks for the legitimacy of the Russian need for a demilitarized Ukraine as a protective buffer.” (https://www.telepolis.de/features/Wie-die-USA-mit-Ukraine-Krieg-und-Chinas-Aufstieg-Europa-knackten-9631903.html)
We have prepared a table with links between all the sites that spread pro-Russian narratives or claims that benefit Moscow. These include Russian state media, news websites supporting far-right political forces, and some other sites. Using web analytics tools, we mapped all the links from each site to all the citations between the sites on the list, which you can see filtered in the table below. [This table only visible on tbe website.]
It is clear that Russia is waging a war of propaganda and disinformation against Europe, whereas it is waging a real war against Ukraine, seizing its territories. An analysis of key Kremlin media narratives in different languages reveals that their campaign’s main goal is to force the West to stop supporting Ukraine and make concessions to Putin, probably by giving him the occupied territories and thus recognizing the redrawing of borders in Europe by military means.
News websites that tend to support pro-Russian, Euroskeptic, and anti-American views, as well as those close to the positions of right-wing radical parties, often pick up such narratives. Consciously or unconsciously, such web resources play into the hands of the Kremlin’s agenda. Such news reports are becoming a tool for spreading Russian and pro-Russian influence in Europe.
No surprise about Telepolis being on this list. They like to portray themselves as some bastion of journalistic integrity, but they have been neck-deep in conspiratorial thinking and propaganda going at least as far back as the earliest 9/11 truthers.
I also had to laugh about “anti-spiegel**.ru**”. That’s about as subtle as a T-34 shell to the face.
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No surprise about Telepolis being on this list. They like to portray themselves as some bastion of journalistic integrity, but they have been neck-deep in conspiratorial thinking and propaganda going at least as far back as the earliest 9/11 truthers.
I also had to laugh about “anti-spiegel**.ru**”. That’s about as subtle as a T-34 shell to the face.