How Russian Disinformation Affects the Public

During the Euromaidan in Ukraine in late 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to more effectively organize the work of Russian state media. The Sputnik International project, led by journalist Dmitry Kiselyov, was conceived by Russia as an informational counterweight to the “Arab Spring” and the “color revolutions” in the post-Soviet space. After all, Moscow claims the post-Soviet space as its exclusive sphere of influence and tries to prevent the rapprochement of Ukraine and other states with the EU. Democratic regime changes in neighboring states, which could serve as a model for Russia, are undesirable and are interpreted as US-funded coups.

The Russian media is a weapon in the information war, an important part of a hybrid war against Western nations, Ukraine, Georgia, and other post-Soviet countries. Russian military theorists, such as Anatoly Streltsov, openly use terms such as “information confrontation” and “information weapons.” Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the international TV channel RT, also calls her channel “a weapon like any other.”

Which Russian media are influential in Germany?

RT and the Russia Today news agency are the two most important Russian media outlets abroad. In 2020, their total budget was 430 million euros, which is more than Deutsche Welle with its 366 million euros. This indicates that working with the media is a priority for Moscow. In Germany, Russia launched RT Deutsch and Sputniknews along with SNA radio in 2014. Earlier, the German services of RIA Novosti and Radio Golos Rossii, which were merged into Russia Today and manage the Sputniknews portal, operated here, and has been called SNA News since December 8, 2020.

The audience of these media is steadily growing. In early November, RT Deutsch overtook Facebook Deutsche Welle with 541,000 subscribers. With 289,000 subscribers, Sputnik ranks in the middle (Graph 1).

The German RT channel has 1.1 million site users (Easy Counter data) and followers on Facebook, Youtube and Twitter combined. It’s a lot. Sputnik has a total of 389,000 users on these portals (Graph 2).

Russia is constantly creating new media formats to reach new audiences. While RT Deutsch and Sputnik are increasingly becoming a platform for right-wing populist content, the Maffick Media, founded in 2018, targets apolitical and young audiences through its online channel In the Now. With over 5 million Facebook users, it is evolving very dynamically (Graph 1). The Redfish company, also founded two years ago in Berlin, addresses socially critical issues primarily to the left-wing auditory.

Russian media as “independent” alternatives to the mainstream

All Russian state media have one thing in common: they present themselves as an independent alternative to the mainstream. They all want to create a counter-audience for the German media, which they believe are being manipulated and which they accuse of concealing the truth. We show a hidden picture, Russian media claim. Therefore, the flagship RT broadcast is called “The missing link” (“Der fehlende Part”).

In fact, trying to present oneself as an independent alternative is a clear deception. These media are financed from the state budget of Russia and are organizationally integrated into the Kremlin-controlled media network. Therefore, they are neither independent nor alternative, but are the Kremlin’s mouthpieces. However, the Russian state media in Germany are well received by people who have lost confidence in the traditional German media. RT and Sputnik also appeal to those who are dissatisfied with the political and economic situation in Germany and consider Russia’s authoritarian system to be the best alternative.

It is no coincidence that Russian state media pay a lot of attention to the protests. For example, speeches by the PEGIDA movement, which criticizes Islam and opposes refugee immigration, or currently opposes government action during the coronavirus crisis. Whether it’s refugees or Covid, RT, Sputnik and Co. are using every crisis to make the German government and authorities helpless and unable to cope with. RT Deutsch claimed in a video on YouTube, which currently has 900,000 views, that the coronavirus epidemic did not exist and that the police were unfairly persecuting defenseless citizens. The system in Germany will soon collapse, predicts RT Deutsch. Measures such as hand washing are pointless, according to the same TV channel. Fake news is often used, for example, when Sputnik claims that the authorities may start using firearms to force citizens to remain in quarantine.

What are the goals of the Russian media in Germany?

The aforementioned examples clearly show the purposes of covering the events: to divide society with controversial topics, to sow doubts and uncertainty, to undermine democracy in Germany. Russian President Putin has been hailed as a positive example of the alleged failures of Western politicians, portraying him as an effective crisis manager.

The coverage of events is polarizing: the actors are divided into friends and enemies, and the criterion is the attitude to the Russian leadership. Accordingly, politicians of the right-wing populist alternative for Germany and the Left Party are covered in a positive light. Circles criticizing Putin and the Federal Government, especially Chancellor Merkel, on the other hand, are portrayed in a negative light and are endowed with appropriate attributes such as “Russophobes” and “Cold War warriors.” The purpose of this is to strengthen Russia’s influence in Germany and to spread Russian narratives, for example, on the controversial issue of Ukraine. Based on reports of the conflict in the Sea of Azov in November 2018, a study The Russian Media in Germany documents that Russia is distracting from its aggressive foreign policy by portraying itself as a victim. 

However, Moscow wants not only to prioritize the interpretation of controversial issues, but also to actively influence the politics. Examples of the Bundestag elections in 2017, the Bavarian land elections in 2018 and the European elections in 2019 demonstrate the biased nature and, in some cases, distortions in the coverage of events. Prospective opponents, such as Chancellor Merkel and European institutions, were portrayed unilaterally in a negative light, while pro-Russian parties of the left and right wings were portrayed positively. In particular, with regard to the Alternative for Germany, it can be noted that the agenda of right-wing populists and the content of RT and Sputnik largely intersect.

At the same time, deputies from the AFG and the Left are a favorite topic for RT and Sputnik reports when they travel to Donbass and Crimea and legitimize Russia’s foreign policy in “alternative” election observations. These German deputies are Moscow’s volunteer helpers when it comes to destabilizing Europe.

An “invisible” threat

Most of the public in Germany is not aware of this problem or believes that Russian misinformation is not a problem. The fact that Russia is waging an information war to many seems very absurd to be true. The German government has practically no public consideration of the problem of hybrid warfare, although the Bundestag in 2015, with a probability bordering on certainty, fell victim to cyber attacks by Russia’s GRU intelligence service. It raises questions and communication of some members of the government with the Russian state media. For example, former Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel gave RT Deutsch exclusive interviews during his tenure before the election, thus legitimizing it as an independent media outlet.

It would be desirable to have a clear position on this issue, as some other European countries have done. For example, French President Emmanuel Macron called RT and Sputnik agents of influence. It also makes sense to create a national media regulator in Germany, such as the British Ofcom. In the UK, RT was fined £200,000 for violating journalistic standards. Russian state media should be required to indicate on the home page: This content is funded by the Russian government. Such transparency is necessary because RT and Co present themselves as alternative and independent media. This misleads users. It is not immediately obvious that the Russian media is the weapon in the information war.