The Israeli bombing of Gaza has shifted the spotlight away from the war in Ukraine, and consequently, for a while, there was a decrease in disinformation related to Russian aggression. However, the propaganda engine started up again at the beginning of March. The devoted supporters of Russian propaganda reported that the “Polish army is preparing to strike Belarus,” followed immediately by the suggestion of “total absurdity” that “Finland seeking war with Russia.” Of course, it is evident that neither the Polish army is preparing to strike Belarus nor Finland is seeking war with Russia. Instead, it’s disinformation and propagandistic interpretation of events by spreading false narratives.
The alleged denazification of Ukraine is one such narrative that the President of Russia personally promoted, and we recently saw an example of its spread on social media where false claims circulated that Ukrainians had displayed a photograph of Adolf Hitler on the building of the Kyiv Assembly.
It is not unknown that Moscow has been rattling weapons lately, mentioning even the possibility of using nuclear ones. This led to the sharing of photos on social media allegedly showing preparations for the Victory Parade with claims that Russia is deploying nuclear weapons throughout the country and that “NATO and the CIA should surrender.”
As if all this were not enough, pro-Russian channels are spreading the claim that Ukraine wants to eliminate Pope Benedict himself. This is a result of an allegation that Pope said that Ukraine should surrender to Russia, even though he only called for negotiations.
When not rattling weapons, making “execution lists,” invoking wars, Hitler, NATO, and the CIA said channels spread misinformation about Ukrainian grain.
According to them, Ukrainian grain is to blame for the deaths of birds in Poland, fostering hatred towards Ukraine among Poles who believe they received poisonous grain shipments. While birds did indeed perish and grain was spilled, neither occurrence is linked to Ukraine. The reason behind the bird deaths remains unknown, while the spilled grain resulted from protests by Polish farmers who perceive Ukraine as enjoying a preferential treatment in the grain trade.
We should not overlook domestic figures who claim that Defense Minister Dragan Krapovic announced a crackdown on media that “do not promote NATO values,” even though he primarily spoke about how new media laws would enable a stronger fight against disinformation.
Darvin Muric
Editor-in-Chief of Raskrinkavanje