Information war against Russia
The phenomenon of information warfare is not something new for humanity: if the guns sometimes still subsided, the verbal battles between the countries never stopped. More ancient authors in detail tell about sophisticated campaign companies, with the help of which the politicians of antiquity tried to weaken their opponents and demoralize them.Modern Russia, occupying one eighth of the land of the globe and possessing the second most powerful army in the world, is involved in a whole series of information conflicts with various countries. Our main opponents are the so-called “Western countries”, of which the US and the UK should be particularly emphasized.
Objectives of the information war
The benefits of introducing pro-Western Russophobic ideas into the minds of Russians are quite tangible and tangible. As we could observe in the nineties, the West managed to extract the following profit from the information war against Russia:
* Free delivery of resources;
* Huge, unprotected Russian market;
* Consent on all foreign policy issues;
* Elimination of competitor in many markets;
* The flow of smart and educated migrants;
* Unilateral disarmament of Russia;
* Payment of financial tribute.
Most importantly, all these important political and economic goals are achieved by infusing relatively little money and energy into campaigning. While the information war against Russia is spent annually on only hundreds of millions of dollars, in the nineties the profit from the robbery of Russia lying in a knockdown was measured in hundreds of billions.
The main anti-Russian memes
Anti-Russian agitation consists in trying to convince Russians of the truth of a number of ideas advantageous to the West. Some of these ideas are frankly false and ridiculous, others are a qualitative distortion of real facts. The introduction of enemy memes is made by their repeated repetition through various channels of information submission. Here are the main points of propaganda.
Russia is wretched and shameful
The idea is simple and intuitive: Russia is hopelessly miserable in absolutely all matters of its existence. Russian goods are bad and uncompetitive. Russian officials are lazy and thievish. Russian children are morons, Russian adults are drunks, Russian old people are poor zombies. Russian roads and cars ... oh, what can we say. In Russia, everything is absolutely bad, shameful Russia can cause a normal person unless bitter laughter or fastidious sympathy.
This idea is one of the basic ones: its carriers become much more susceptible to all other Russophobic ideas.
West is incomparably better than Russia
The idea is that the West is infinitely more developed and civilized country than Russia. There is more freedom, more order, more money and even more kindness. Western goods are by default better than domestic ones, and Western politicians are more honest and smarter than Russian ones.
The benefit of this meme is extracted in several directions at once: this and the support of other ideas emanating from the wise West, this is the desire to “vote with your feet” by emigrating to some western country.
Patriotism - for fools and scoundrels
The bottom line: patriotism is outdated, a normal person should be a cosmopolitan, a citizen of the world. Say, one should not confuse the state with the country: abstract Russia can be loved, but its concrete representatives should be scolded and hated. In any case, human values are most important.
The task of the meme is clear: to convince dissidents that they are not traitors, but noble revolutionaries. The true traitors are the patriots of Russia, who betray human values for the sake of their selfish interests.
Russia is heading for the abyss
Now living in Russia is bad, but it’s still flowers: it will be even worse. Russia is dying, it is impoverished, dying out and depleting its natural resources. No exit. A little more, and the real disaster will come.
Conclusion? It is necessary either to get out of this doomed place to the West, or to start a struggle against the leading Russia in the abyss of the Kremlin.
Russia has no enemies
Very important technical meme, which is necessary for the promotion of other Russophobic ideas. Its essence is that Western countries wish Russia only good, and that Russia’s only enemy is itself.
According to this memo, when someone claims that Russia - deserving destruction, is not finished, he just honestly tells us fair things about our shortcomings - for our own good. Moreover, he does not pursue any personal gain.
And, on the contrary, only paranoids or regular Kremlin propagandists can speak seriously about the enemies of Russia.
The task of the meme is transparent - to increase confidence in the information coming from the West and to discredit in advance the attempts to expose Russophobic lies.
Kremlin zombies cattle
The essence of the meme is that the majority of Russians are close-minded cattle, whose opinion should not be taken into account, since it is formed by total censorship in the media and the brazen lies of the First Channel.
The tasks are to divert the attention of the bearers of the idea from the fact that they are Western zombies, to create an image of an evil and powerful totalitarian Kremlin, to give reason to ignore the will of the people.
Russia needs a revolution
This meme is pedalized or attenuated depending on the current Russian policy for the West. In the years when Russia meekly gives the West everything that it asks for from it — from oil to political concessions — revolution is not needed. When Russia begins to remember its own interests, the West immediately starts talking about the need to overthrow the undemocratic "tyrant."
State is your enemy
According to this memo, officials, politicians and civil servants are enemies of the people. Thus, carriers of memes consider it right to support any actions against the state: up to and including terrorist acts.
Another consequence of this meme is the idea of a strong official as a bad official. Ideally, the official should be the lackey of the liberal media and resign at their first request.
The meme's task is transparent: the weaker the power, the less public support it enjoys, the easier it is for the West to break through its goals in Russia.
Orthodoxy - evil
The idea is that the Church is a corrupt and outdated entity that “zombies” the population and hinders the development of science. As an alternative, the ROC offers progressive tolerance and political correctness.
The goal of introducing this idea is clear: to reduce the influence of the pro-Russian ROC and increase the influence of pro-Western human rights organizations.
Russia is for russians
At first glance, this is even a pro-Russian thesis. However, it simply spins up to “Russian people are insulted in the Caucasus,” “enough to feed the Caucasus,” and, finally, to the natural “We don’t need a Caucasus.”
The point is to inflate separatist sentiment and weaken Russia with ethnic hatred. Ideally, dismember Russia into several smaller countries, as was done in the 1991 year with the USSR.
History conflict development
Snow-covered Russia has never been a full member of the European family of nations. Europeans could be friends with Russians, cooperate with them, even fight with Russians side by side against a common enemy. However, at the same time, Russia has always been perceived as a “stranger” - a kind of big, uncut bears, which have no place in a bright and clean European home.
A significant proportion of Western propaganda of the last centuries was directed at rooting in the minds of this conviction. The beginning of the current revolution of the information war can be considered the 1953 year, when the Americans launched the Radio Liberty project, which serves for the ideological support of Soviet dissidents. Actually, it was the Americans who headed the information crusade against the USSR.
In Khrushchev and Brezhnev times, American agitation was successfully restrained by an iron curtain and censorship. Relatively few dissidents were quite harmless, a significant part of them worked for the KGB.
In the Gorbachev period, however, the course taken on "publicity" and "restructuring" opened the way for the Americans to the defenseless brains of the Soviet people. It took only a few years for real revolutionary fermentation to begin in the USSR. Their result was the collapse of the Soviet Union and the de facto subordination of the authorities of the newly formed Russia to good American advisers.
In the wild nineties, the western point of view on Russia became generally accepted and almost official. The federal TV channels almost Russia called Russia a shameful country of unfortunate non-people, who should be ashamed of the very fact of its existence.
The turn for the better happened in the zero years, when Vladimir Putin, who replaced Yeltsin, “ravnoudadil” the most odious oligarchs and took from them part of the power levers. Official TV channels reluctantly, but began to express at least a formally pro-Russian point of view on current events. Nevertheless, radio stations, newspapers and, of course, the Internet retained almost unconditional loyalty to the West.
In the 2011 year, after Putin’s decision to participate in the 2012 presidential election of the year, informational pressure on Russia has dramatically increased. The White Ribbon collaborationist movement was created, the one hundred thousandth pro-Western meetings in Moscow were organized. A full-scale harassment of the Russian authorities unfolded on the Internet, which even overshadowed the traditional harassment of Russia and the Russians themselves.
At the same time, pro-Russian communities and the media began to gain momentum. Russia even managed to launch a fairly successful counterattack using the strategic offensive channel Russia Today.
Situation on the fronts
At present, the forces are still unequal: pro-Western Russophobic ideas dominate on almost all fronts. Nevertheless, the protest movement for 2012 year strongly swept and seriously discredited. Many ardent supporters of Western ideas removed the rose-colored glasses of revolutionary euphoria from their eyes and took a more moderate position "a plague on both of your houses."
Телевидение
Despite the Russophobes actively pedaling the slogan “The First Channel is lying” and the active persecution of the main presenter News - Ekaterina Andreeva - The first channel can be called the “information mouthpiece of the Kremlin” except as a joke. This is an ordinary large entertainment channel that covers current events sluggishly, without a twinkle and with a clear bias towards a pro-Western point of view.
Another TV channel of ours - selected at the time from the enemies of NTV - recently quite cheerfully began to slacken the belolentochny opposition: for example, in the series “Protest Anatomy”. Nevertheless, its non-political programs remain largely chernushny, showing life in Russia from the most unattractive sides.
Definitely pro-Russian is Russia Today headed by Margarita Simonyan: it is quickly building up the audience of Western viewers and gives a lot of headaches to the enemy propagandists, who have been weaned from a serious rebuff. Residents of the West value RT as the only major TV channel that shows an alternative point of view on the humanitarian bombardment by NATO troops of oil-bearing countries and on other democratic achievements. Unfortunately, this channel almost does not look inside Russia.
The second uniquely pro-Russian TV channel is relatively small Russia.ru.
On the other hand, the barricades as a frankly Russophobic self are positioned only by the official opposition television channel Dozhd. Most of the remaining channels retain formal neutrality, which, however, does not prevent them in passing to throw out such prominences of hatred towards modern Russia, to which even Valeria Ilyinichna Novodvorskaya would not have fallen.
It is needless to say that the largest Western television channels, such as CNN, BBC and FoxNews, also carry out massive artillery support for our fifth column. Fortunately for us, these channels are aimed at an unassuming western viewer. Therefore, they regularly discredit themselves by frank crap, a famous example of which was non-existent palm trees on the streets of Moscow, allegedly overwhelmed by unrest.
Thus, the telefront in general can be described as moderately Russophobic.
Радио
The official state station, Radio Mayak, shows on the air an unseen, transcendent Russophobia, which, characteristically, is not the initiative of the hosts, but is supported by their leadership.
A slightly lower level of Russophobia is demonstrated by the official opposition radio station, Ekho Moskvy. A lot of negatives about Russia can be heard on the “business” radio Business FM.
The calm pro-Russian position is expressed by Vesti-FM. Entertaining radio stations are trying not to go into politics and avoid sharp corners: nevertheless, even at entertainment radio stations, it is customary to petrosyan in the key "well, what else can we expect from our nasty rashki."
In general, the airwaves are anti-Russian.
Paper media
The range of opinions of serious paper media ranges from neutral (“Vedomosti”) to underlined Russophobic (“Novaya Gazeta”). The editorial policy of the majority of the business press (Kommersant, Expert, Vlast) tends to moderate Russophobia.
The yellow press sometimes allows itself to express the pro-Russian point of view, but the general emphasis on the dill with success devalues these timid attempts.
Thus, on the paper media front, the situation is again far from being in our favor.
Internet
The Internet is currently the main breakthrough sector for Western propaganda. Some sites of the Runet (Dirty.ru, Newsland) are captured by Russophobes entirely, others (LiveJournal, Facebook) retain the appearance of neutrality, even though Russophobes have an overwhelming advantage on them.
A huge number of secondary sites - such as comments on the articles of most online media - are tightly occupied by liberal bots, automatically leaving responses in the key "rise up for the revolution, oppressed people" and "when this damned country dies."
Starting with 2011, high-quality pro-Russian resources began to appear on the Internet on a massive scale (However, Ipolk, Made-in-us).
In general, however, the Internet is now purely anti-Russian.
Society
Moods of society are formed over the years. They are influenced both by the general background of the positive changes taking place in Russia and the tireless work of Russophobic sources of information.
The overwhelming majority of Russians are quite skeptical and critical towards modern Russia, however, there is no longer a humiliated crawling in the mud in front of everything western that could be observed in the nineties: now for the reason that foreigners are now not associated with pot-bellied bourgeois in tuxedos , and with dark-skinned wipers in orange vests.
As a reliable indicator of the attitude of Russians towards the state, the presidential elections that took place in 2012 year can serve. They voted for Putin 64% of Russians.
The composition of the enemy troops
The army of Russophobes is motley and poorly organized. However, it does not make it any less dangerous. Here are the main groups of people acting against Russia.
Western politicians
Strangely enough, this is almost the only category of Russophobes that allows itself to speak directly: yes, Russia is our enemy and we try to spoil it in every way. John McCain, Michael McFaul, Hillary Clinton: all these people can be trusted when they report their dreams about the American puppet in the Kremlin. The role of Western politicians in the information war against Russia is the allocation of financial and other resources to wage this war.
Western media
“Free” Western media, like Western politicians, are primarily focused on the Western audience. Therefore, they speak not so much about Russia, and when they say - they drive the transcendental cranberries and hack-work, such as an illustration of a rally about the abolition of time zones by recording from the procession of nationalists.
Russia in their reports acts as a mean and greedy enemy, who then attacks defenseless Georgia, then extorts money for gas from a helpless Ukraine.
Westernized NGOs
Western military non-profit organizations are divided into two types - rating agencies like Transparency International, which put Russia on the last places in their ratings, and opposition troughs like USAID, in which prominent representatives of our fifth column get paid. Both types of activities are very important, and if we recently threw out grantors from the country, we still cannot counteract the lies of “independent agencies”.
Agents of the West
The Russian opposition who receive salaries in the West — such as Ponomarev or Alekseeva — organize various kinds of actions to spread Russophobic ideas. Their activities and motives are completely transparent: they are allocated money for pro-Western propaganda, they are working out the organization of opposition rallies, working in the media and in the blogosphere and other obvious ways.
Applicants for the title of agents can be attributed to this group: activists like Naganov, who at first for some time conduct free propaganda campaigns, and only then stand up for a full monetary allowance.
Liberal Journalists
Strangely enough, most of the Russophobic journalists shame us completely disinterestedly, without any financial support from the West. Historically, 95% of journalists and media editors hold a more or less Russophobic point of view.
Media owners do not always share this position of journalists, however, as a rule, the owners have no determination to break staff across the knee: if only because Russophobia is a relatively simple way to keep high ratings.
As a classic example, one can cite the same Mayak radio, which theoretically belongs to the state, but in practice allows the hosts to promote transcendent Russophobia on the air.
Activists
For people with an active civic stand, propaganda of Russophobic ideas is a natural place to apply forces. Fighting with their own country, they think that they are engaged in an extremely important matter for society - and at the same time, what is important, the activists feel the full support of the public in this.
As a rule, activists begin with some neutral topics - such as, for example, the fight against flashing lights, corruption, or even juvenile justice. However, soon enough, the information background pushes them first to the conclusion that “the state admits this problem”, and then to the vicious idea “we must fight the authorities, now this is more important and necessary than my small concrete cases.”
Emigration
Not all emigrants are able to cope with a sense of resentment towards the country they left. Many of them find outlet in the conduct of Russophobic activities on the Internet. This gives them the opportunity not only to "revenge" Russia, but also to assert themselves at the expense of "poor" Russians.
Also, some of our compatriots make a small identification on services leaving the country: for them, Russophobia serves as a kind of beacon that attracts potential emigrants.
In a separate category of Russophobes can be identified numerous citizens of Ukraine, who for several reasons consider participation in the information war with Russia almost as their sacred duty.
Led people
The “dark mass” of Russophobes is made up of ordinary people, who at some point found themselves immersed in the Russophobic information field. Man is a social animal, so at the moment when he realizes that his colleagues and his friends on the Internet are Russophobes, he immediately accepts this ideology and begins to spread it further as far as his modest forces are concerned.
It takes considerable courage and very thick skin to go "against the stream" for a long time. Therefore, even if a white patriotic crow is found in a group of Russophobes, she usually prefers to keep quiet about her unconventional views.
Unlucky
People chronically dissatisfied with life find in Russophobia an excellent explanation and justification for their failures. Since free time - as well as unspent anger - is usually a lot of losers, it is not surprising that they are distinguished by enviable fecundity in terms of creating Russophobic posts and comments.
A typical example of such a Russophobe-loser can blogger asocio.
Liberal bots
An important role in the dissemination of Russophobic myths is played by liberal bots and teams of botovods. Some bots are used for promotion of pro-Western bloggers, others work “by area”, creating a Russophobic information background in the comments to thousands of small forums and the media. Separate teams of high-level botovodov are used to point the seizure of power on key resources of the Runet (a classic example is the occupation of Dirty.ru).
Current balance of power
Despite the overwhelming superiority of the enemy in numbers and skill, the situation is not so hopeless as it may seem at first glance.
The state, though slowly, is beginning to call to order the media belonging to it. More and more pro-Russian bloggers and public figures appear. Many people have an overdose of Russophobia: they are bored with streams of dirt that pour from all the cracks into their country. Finally, people are becoming more experienced: after a short period of blind euphoria, they begin to see inconsistencies and distortions in enemy agitation.
Many already understand that a real information war is being waged against Russia, and they are not going to take part in this war on the side of the enemy. Pro-Russian discussion participants, hardened in unequal battles, acquire invaluable skills in countering indiscriminate crowds of Russophobes.
Finally, we are on our territory, and our opponent is forced to wield on someone else's: he doesn’t understand our realities very well, and regularly makes painful miscalculations because of this.
In general, a change in our favor is planned in the information war. In the coming years, we have quite good chances to take away a significant part of the information field from rofosobov.
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