The voices of the Kremlin

Novyevropa counted more than 100 telegram channels that distribute Russian propaganda abroad. They write in different languages, but promote the same narratives

In early March 2022, Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik were completely blocked on the territory of the European Union - the main sources of Russian propaganda, focused on foreign countries. Their niche, at least in Telegram, occupied other channels that talk about events in different countries through the prism of Russian propaganda. Novyevropa studied several dozen such channels in Telegram in different languages ​​and found out how they throw and disperse fakes, who leads them and how they are all connected into a common grid.

Fist to combat propaganda

In mid -July, the Frenchwoman Kristel Nean, who has been living in the Donbass for seven years, was urgently called to Moscow - to meet with Vladimir Putin. Arriving literally “in what it was”, Neang told the President of the Russian Federation about the Donbass Insider telegram channel created by her in French and complained that everything was doing everything, and this is not very effective. Therefore, Christel asked Putin to help connect all Western journalists, "who tell the truth [about the Donbass]", in "one fist to fight with Western propaganda."

The Frenchwoman suggested uniting colleagues on the basis of the “Workshop of the New Media” - the educational platform created by the ANO “Dialogue”, which is responsible for the PR of the Ministry of Defense and the creation of fakes about Ukraine, and the ANO “Russia is the Stage of Opportunities”, whichholds youth contests and the Olympiad for the Kremlin.

Putin promised to support the idea of ​​Frenchwoman, especially considering that now the “only Russian resource directed to the Western audience”, Russia Today, was blocked everywhere.

Indeed, in the president’s instructions , following this meeting, there is a point on increasing the financing of the “new media workshop” from the federal budget, as well as register the telegram channel Kristel Nean Donbass Insider as the media and support in “further resource support of its functioning”. How exactly Neang will cooperate with the site of the "workshop" is not specified.

According to the TG-STAT analytics service, the Donbass Insider channel was created in 2018, but actively began to grow in March 2022-a thousand subscribers in early February already turned into 20 thousand. On the channel, Nean covers the war in Ukraine exclusively from a pro -Russian position, for example, calls Ukrainians neo -Nazis , constantly scolds the West and Vladimir Zelensky. And only from the "corridors of the Kremlin", according to Kristel, does "unshakable determination and stability" come from.

Judging by the social networks of Neang, until 2016 she worked in the Dutch office of the Deloitte consulting company, which is part of the “large four” of the largest audit companies. Then she ended up in the Donbass as a journalist of the Doni agency, who offered “reliable press services to partners around the world in English and other Western languages.” In 2018, the agency closed, and Kristel decided to work independently.

Neang refused the request for an interview with New-Europe.

Postcard from "Fisher"

Despite Putin’s assurances, Russia Today is not the only Russian resource directed to the Western audience. In the summer of 2023, the Austrian military on their YouTube channel said that Russia through social networks spreads a “whole series of aggressive news” to create an impression of successes at the front. On the screen at that moment they showed a New Year's card close to the Ministry of Defense of the Telecal channel "Rybar". On it is a diagram of many channels in the center with Rybam, to the left of which the icon and Donbass Insider were visible.

Novyevropa found almost all 200 publics from this postcard and found that more than 50 of them are devoted to international politics and cover the events in a particular region-Eastern and Central Europe, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey and other channels (the remaining 150 channels are news aggregators or copyright channels of propagandists and military commissars). But they are united by two things - they all write about the war in Ukraine, as well as about the countries that they are dedicated through the prism of Russian propaganda, and they are somehow connected with the “fishing” - either they will reproduce each other, or refer to the materials, or mention the authors of the channels.

Telegram channels from the mesh "Fisher"

Circle size - number of subscribers

Click on the group to see the details

Mikhail Zinchuk, the founder of the Dybar Telegram channel, in the commentary for the editorial office himself admitted that he has a mesh in a telegram of 130 channels.

“I don’t have much my own channels, where I have the rights of the owner. There are about 30 of them. But there is a wide partner network, only foreign channels we have, it turns out, about 130 pieces, a total audience of more than 7 million people. Yes, they intersect, because part of the audience from one channel is in the audience of another channel, but in general, due to the coverage and due to the fact that these are Arabic, Korean, Chinese resources, and not only in Telegram, it turns out something unique, ”Zinchuk said.

Among the 50 publics that we studied, there are channels in both Russian and local (English, German, Italian, French and others). For example, the Channel "Warsaw Mermaid" is dedicated to a greater extent Poland, but also the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. “Balkan gossip” - respectively, the Balkan countries, “sex, cartels, Frida Kalo” - South America, “Severyanochka” - Scandinavia, “Waking Dragon” to China and other countries of East Asia, “Old Woman of England” - Great Britain, as well as Ireland and Scotland, “Tasmansky Devil” - Australia, and so on.

Germany and its relations with Russia are mainly illuminated by German -speaking channels, such as Russländer & Friends or Neues aus Russland. There are at least six channels about Italy in Italian, including a public with the speaking name of Italia Z. Also at least three channels - in French, four in Spanish and four in Serbian.

The number of subscribers of all these publics varies from 2-3 thousand to 80 thousand. At the same time, most of them, judging by the TG-STAT data, the active growth of users began after a full-scale invasion of Russia to Ukraine.

Foreign partners

One way or another, “Rybar” mentions all these channels - either making reposts, or publishing links to them in his channel. He himself confirmed his connection with them in June 2023, when he stated that his work became “much more noticeable on a foreign Internet” thanks to “support from foreign bloggers”, whose “audience in Telegram is growing in arithmetic progress”.

“This makes us once again convince that an adequate opinion, so different from the mainstream, as air needs residents of Europe, the USA, and many other countries”,

- wrote "Fisherman".

Then he published a list of the so-called foreign partners and colleagues, among whom there is Frenchwoman Cristel Nean, which leads the Donbass Insider telegram channel. It is mentioned on a par with the “heroic girls-journalists” Alina Lipp and Eve Bartlett.

The first of them is conducted by the above-mentioned telegram channel about Germany Neues aus Russian (German News from Russia). In the homeland, in Germany, Lippa threatens up to three years in prison under the article on “encouraging and approval of criminal actions” against Ukraine.

The second, Canadian Eva Bartlett, is the Columnist Russia Today, who became famous for the spread of fakes during the war in Syria. It leads the channel of the same name in English, where literally all politicians, except Vladimir Putin scolds. The icon of her channel is also on the card of the "Fisher".

At the same time, the “Fisher” grid is not the only source of Russian propaganda in a telegram, focused on foreign countries. Some channels of Russia Today and Sputnik remained in the messenger (although they do not open from the territory of Europe even when using VPN), as well as the “International Fan” - part of the RIA Fan, which was associated with Evgeny Prigozhin.

Telegram channels from the nets RT, Sputnik, Mfan

Circle size - number of subscribers

Click on the group to see the details

Among the channels of the latter, a significant part is dedicated to the countries of Africa, in particular TsA, Sudan, Morocco and others. They continue to work even after the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin and an official announcement of the closure of the media group. Although, for example, the Admins of the China Army channel regularly postpone the job search: “The China Army Channel Administration will consider the proposals of employment on the Labor Code of the Russian Federation to your state if your organization has free vacancies: an analyst, editor, and an OSINT specialist.”

"Russian World" in Yerevan

“Mika, you began to speak too much and think, think about your behavior,” with such words, armed people in masks detained the Armenian blogger, the author of the same telegram channel Miku Badalyan, nicknamed Burger.

The first about his loss in the Armenian city of Goris was announced by a Russian official - the head of Rossotrudnichestvo Evgeny Primakov. Then, the “fisherman” actively connected to the lighting of the incident, which before that regularly referred to Badalyan and made reposts from his channel. Its avatar is also on the New Year card.

“Mika did much more to promote the ideas of the Russian world and the national unity of Armenia than many Russian officials,” the author of the Fisherman wrote then.

Soon it became officially known that Badalyan was detained in the case of the illegal circulation of firearms. This news was almost immediately reacted by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, saying that this is a “persecution of journalists” and “the provocation of those who sleep and sees how to spoil the relations of the two countries”. The next day the blogger was released.

“By and large, no one knew Badalyana in Armenia,” Armenian political scientist Michael Zolyan recalls in a conversation with Novo-Europe.

- Apparently, this is a person sent from Moscow. They usually begin to talk about him when they are arrested after another hooligan trick.

That is, he is just an activist who is a lot here, but far from everyone says Maria Zakharova. ”

For the first time in the socio-political field of Armenia, Michael Badalyan appeared at the end of 2020. It was then that he started a telegram channel, which now has more than 40 thousand subscribers. As he himself told in an interview, he was pushed by the surrender of Armenia in the Second Karabakh war on November 9, 2020, that day he first went out to the street - against the surrender of territories to Azerbaijan.

Until 2020, Badalyan, judging by his page on Facebook, worked in Russia, as well as in the annexed Crimea, where he was engaged in the hotel business. So, in 2015-2017, he was the commercial director of Mriya Resort & SPA in Yalta, the construction of which was funded by Sberbank and cost $ 300 million.

According to information on the website of the Kiev District Court of Simferopol, Badalyan in Crimea also took 1 million rubles on credit and did not return it. The bailiffs base indicate that now the amount of its debt, taking into account interest, has increased to almost 2 million.

In his channel, Badalyan constantly opposes Nikola Pashinyan. He and the participants in his movement arrange protests against the Prime Minister every time he critically speaks of Russia or talks about cooperation with Western countries. By the way, the same rhetoric in relation to Armenia adheres to the “fisherman”, who reposted Badalyan more than a hundred times.

According to political scientist Michael Zolyan, Miki's activities are fully consistent with the methods of Russian propaganda in Armenia, where there are two main narratives. The first, common to all countries where Russia is present in one form or another, is the promotion of traditional values ​​in contrast to how the family institution is allegedly destroyed in the West due to LGBT propaganda.

For example, in one of the posts of dividing the world into two camps, the blogger wrote this way (spelling and punctuation are preserved):

“Yes, today there is a struggle for values, on the one hand, supporters of LGBT, scabbing the legs of the blummers, on the other, fighters for traditional values, or in two words, pidarophils against pidarophobes.

On which of the camps will win, it depends in what normality our children and grandchildren will grow. I am for the second camp and traditional values, and you? "

The second, specific for Armenia, the propaganda narrative appeared after the Karabakh war of 2020. Its essence is to blame Armenia and Pashinyan in losing.

This narrative, political scientist Michael Zolyan believes, works very effectively in Armenia, as it resonates with what many Armenians think, in particular those who are not fans of the Kremlin, but are disappointed with Pashinyan and Armenia’s defeat in the Karabakh conflict.

“Both Margarita Simonyan and Vladimir Solovyov quoted Mika Badalyan, where he actually called for entering the square against Pashinyan. This narrative is very dangerous, because it really shares the Armenian society, where everyone accuses everyone, ”Zolyan believes.

From refugees to drug cartels

The topics covered in the international telegram channels of the fisherman grid differ depending on the region. However, each of them has several common narratives that Russian propaganda uses - justifying the invasion of Ukraine by the “neo -Nazis”, criticism of the behavior of Ukrainian refugees in the countries that accept them, promote traditional values ​​and the fight against LGBTK+, European dependence on Russian energy resources and Russophobia.

Thus, one of the most active and often quoted by the “fishing” channel “Warsaw Mermaid”, dedicated to Poland and other countries of Eastern and Central Europe, regularly publishes news about the inappropriate behavior of Ukrainians. For example, the fact that refugees are constantly unhappy with the conditions of accommodation, tells the video a woman who is represented by a Ukrainian. But neither her name nor a link to the source from where the video was taken, the Mermaid is indicated.

Another woman, also a Ukrainian, says the video that her friends in Poland offered her fellow countrymen, refugees, work, but they said that they did not need it: “They thought that everything was free here and that they would give an apartment and allowance.”

At the same time, the woman complains that because of such Ukrainians he himself cannot find a job. Why she cannot go to work with her “friends”, she does not specify. There are no links to the source either.

In addition, the Warsaw Mermaid does not get tired of reminding what problems Poland faces due to the arrival of Ukrainian refugees. For example, the news that Poland spends about 300 million zlotys (more than 5 billion rubles) on the treatment of a million refugees per month, the mermaid serves as follows: “The burden of refugee healthcare lies in full on Polish society.” The conclusion of the channel author makes the following: “If you thought that every day Ukrainians in Poland have more privileges than the Poles, it did not seem to you.”

Also, the Mermaid constantly reports on crimes that either Ukrainians or some Ukrainian mafia commit. At the same time, mention of crimes committed by people of other nationalities is much more difficult to find in the channel.

Back in April 2022, the Mermaid began to write about Poland's plans “to establish control of the western part of Ukraine,” but the country supposedly expected support from the United States. As a result of the capture, it did not work out, since American soldiers supposedly “are not particularly eager to come to Poland and complain about their health. The source of information about the behavior of the soldiers that the Mermaid refers to this post is a kind of Polish -speaking resource, which itself refers to its anonymous sources.

Also, the Mermaid wrote that “photographs of the ballot for a referendum about joining Poland for residents of the Lviv region appear on the network. The author of the channel did not bring any evidence of the reliability of the photos.

The Russian propaganda in the channel "Sex, Cartel, Frida Kalo" is much less obvious. Firstly, a significant part of the content of this telegram channel dedicated to the countries of South America concerns conflicts between local criminal groups-participants in various drug carters, mercenaries and others. Secondly, the policy of this region as a whole is much less understandable to the Russian-speaking audience. But among the news about the next criminal showdowns, the criticism of the United States and Joe Biden flashes, mention of Russophobia in a particular context and a derogatory attitude to representatives of the LGBTK+community.

В канале «Старушка Англия» российские пропагандистские нарративы тоже не сразу бросаются в глаза. Там действительно много постов о внутренней политике Великобритании, оценить правдивость которых без знания контекста довольно сложно. Однако если долго читать «Старушку Англию», становится понятно, что некоторые темы также повторяются постоянно, среди них — миграционный кризис в Великобритании, нежелание британцев принимать украинских беженцев, описание того, как британцы, вынужденные экономить из-за высоких цен на электроэнергию, замерзают в своих домах, а также едкие комментарии при освещении тем, связанных с ЛГБТК+.

Сербские же каналы, помимо освещения общих пропагандистских нарративов, ведут настоящую информационную войну против антивоенно настроенных россиян, приехавших в Сербию после 24 февраля. Так, например, «Балканская сплетница» регулярно в уничижительной манере пишет про акции Российского демократического общества (РДО), обвиняя активистов в расшатывании политической ситуации в стране. А также пытается выяснить , кто финансирует РДО — западные фонды или структуры Михаила Ходорковского.

QAnon по-кремлевски

И «Варшавская русалка», и «Фрида Кало» еще в марте 2022 года начали сообщать о продаже украинских детей и женщин в рабство. Только если «Русалка» просто сообщила об увеличении рисков для беженцев стать жертвами траффикинга, то «Фрида Кало» развила мысль до продажи людей на органы ради пересадки раненым бойцам ВСУ.

«Судя по всему, на Украине сейчас есть не только любители цитировать Адольфа Эйхмана в прямом эфире — мы все уже поняли, что там есть и местные продолжатели дела доктора Менгеле, которые не только кастрируют , но и выкачивают кровь (для тех же раненых бойцов ВСУ), спинной мозг или разбирают людей на органы. <…> При этом потерю детей очень удобно можно списать на «плохих русских», которые после освобождения очередного населенного пункта даже не будут иметь способа узнать, что тот или иной украинский ребенок вообще существовал юридически — все базы данных находятся в распоряжении украинских чиновников», — пишет «Фрида Кало» (орфография и пунктуация автора сохранены).

При этом никаких фактов, подтверждающих кастрацию и «выкачивание крови», «Фрида» не приводит. Она лишь ссылается на заявление украинского врача, который в эфире телешоу призывал кастрировать российских солдат.

Также она утверждает, что украинских детей «под видом эвакуации отвозят к покупателям и продают на территории западных стран». Ни одной ссылки на источник.

Откуда автор канала узнала об этом, совершенно непонятно.

Но посты «Фриды Кало» о продаже человеческих органов и «черных трансплантологах» репостил «Рыбарь», за счет чего они собирали по несколько сотен тысяч просмотров.

Летом 2023 года к этой теме подключились и другие каналы из сетки «Рыбаря», которые начали сообщать уже о том, что некие украинские бизнесмены, проживающие в Италии, «при поддержке киевской администрации организовали канал поставки человеческих органов из Украины в Турцию».

Причем первоисточником в данном случае послужил канал с 500 подписчиками на турецком языке, который в свою очередь ссылается на свои анонимные источники в турецких СМИ без каких-либо уточнений, кто эти источники и что это за медиа.

Свое «расследование» о продаже украинских детей выпустила и француженка Кристель Неан. Она заявляет, что детей продают не только ради трансплантации органов, но и для «педофильских сетей». К таким выводам Неан приходит на основе материалов других авторов. Например, она ссылается на репортаж РИА ФАН (сейчас недоступен), в котором 11-летняя девочка по имени Миланья рассказывает, как украинские солдаты из подразделения под названием «Белые ангелы» «насильно забрали четырехлетнего ребенка, в то время как ее родители беспомощно смотрели на то, как на них направлено оружие».

Что это за ребенок? Кто его родители? Куда его забрали? Кристель Неан не отвечает ни на один из этих вопросов, но зато делает вывод: «Мне было ясно, что похищенные Украиной дети в Донбассе затем отправляются за границу для всевозможной гнусной торговли — от торговли органами до педофильских сетей».

Также Неан ссылается на «расследование» Василия Прозорова — бывшего сотрудника СБУ, которого уволили за пьянство. После этого он стал активно рассказывать российским СМИ о преступлениях бывших сослуживцев.

Всё расследование Прозорова о том, как сотрудники СБУ продают украинских детей «влиятельным педофилам» в Великобританию, строится на «его источниках на Украине».

«От моих источников на Украине мне в руки попала весьма тревожная информация, свидетельствующая о том, что в стране действует законспирированная многоуровневая организация, занимающаяся поиском детей, их отбором, подготовкой документов, легализующих выезд за границу, и последующей переправкой в Великобританию, где они становятся жертвами влиятельных педофилов. На вершине этой могущественной преступной пирамиды по торговле детьми — Служба безопасности Украины», — пишет Прозоров.

Кристель Неан добавляет, что «с британской стороны в этом деле замешаны сотрудники MI6 и Министерства иностранных дел». Опять же, откуда она взяла эти данные, француженка не объясняет.

Кто всё это читает

Телеграм — самая подходящая площадка для продвижения российской пропаганды за рубежом, считает Антон Шеховцов, директор Центра демократических принципов и ассоциированный научный сотрудник Университета Вены в Австрии. Во-первых, мессенджер популярен среди русскоязычных выходцев из постсоветского пространства. Во-вторых, еще во времена пандемии коронавируса телеграм «стал отдушиной» для многих людей, потому что там можно говорить без цензуры.

«У российской пропаганды не очень хорошо получается работать в фейсбуке, там модераторы с завидной регулярностью подчищают все дезинформационные сети, — объясняет эксперт. — То же самое в твиттере, хотя эта соцсеть в целом не очень популярна среди тех, на кого рассчитывает Кремль. Даже «ВКонтакте», насколько я знаю, плохо относится к политической рекламе. А телеграм открыт, там можно гораздо проще продвигать посты».

По мнению Ильи Яблокова, лектора Университета Шеффилда и исследователя дезинформации, создание и развитие сетки каналов «Рыбаря» — логичное решение в условиях, когда заблокированы все каналы Russia Today.

«Ни RT, ни Sputnik в Европе или Великобритании невозможно открыть или сделать перепост оттуда, — говорит Яблоков. — Но запрос на информацию остается. Глупо думать, что за рубежом нет людей, которым близка позиция России. Поэтому сейчас занять нишу RT даже проще негосударственным каналам. На «Рыбаря» нет бана, и его просто так не заблокируешь».

Яблоков отмечает, что у таких каналов есть две основные задачи: первая — донести, пусть и до небольшой аудитории, точку зрения Кремля, вторая — дестабилизировать ситуацию в обществе, вбрасывая дезинформацию.

Но в масштабах всего мира аудитория таких каналов сравнительно небольшая. Во-первых, это русскоязычная диаспора. Во-вторых, аудитория в «стратегических регионах» типа Казахстана, Закавказья, Балтийских стран, Приднестровья и Молдовы, которые, по словам эксперта, империалисты в Кремле хотели бы забрать себе. Поэтому для них сетки распространения пропаганды — «стратегический актив».

«Люди, сидящие в высоких кабинетах, думают, что это будут читать. А люди, которые «пилят» бюджет, понимают, что это хороший способ заработать. Понимаете, такой контент настолько дешево произвести, а с ChatGPT можно делать вообще бесплатно. Но из бюджета на это выделяются нормальные суммы. Тем не менее для людей с большими деньгами это всё равно копейки. Поэтому нет причин этого не делать, тем более вдруг однажды они им действительно смогут пригодиться», — говорит Яблоков.

Аудитория среди людей, говорящих на других языках, и вовсе крошечная, потому что телеграм среди них не популярен.

«Нужно быть очень мотивированным [пользователем], чтобы идти в телеграм и уж тем более подписываться там на какие-то каналы. Большинство иностранцев сидит в WhatsApp. Я думаю, они работают для сторонников Марин Ле Пен или партии «Альтернатива для Германии», например. То есть это понятная аудитория, которая раньше была у RT», — говорит Яблоков.

Сотрудник агентства Sputnik, пожелавший остаться анонимным, считает, что Кремль при создании источников информации на других языках в первую очередь ориентируется на зарубежную аудиторию. Именно поэтому пропагандисты любят истории об «экономическом воздействии» войны в Украине на страны ЕС.

«Они пытаются сказать: смотри, война делает твою жизнь отстойной. Всё стоит дороже, и цены на нефть такие высокие. Перестань поддерживать Украину, и ты сможешь вернуться к нормальной жизни», — объясняет сотрудник Sputnik.