Let´s talk about Russian Information Operations. Featuring today: COVID-19 How Russia used the Pandemic to further societal rifts in Europe and to bind more people to their information environment by using the "Firehose of Falsehoods" and what that has to do with Ukraine.

But first things first. Before the Pandemic started Russia already had created a well oiled disinformation network with "Russia Today" - later "RT" - and "Sputnik News" as its high gloss flagships. Both are available in numerous languages and each one of them caters tailor made

news and information for their respective audiences. They know the grievances & rifts in their target societies well and twist their information accordingly. When both started out, they mixed decent information with pieces of disinformation, conspiracy theories and fringe topics.

This attracted many people to the new media outlets who felt that they would get decent information and had some of their own insecurities about the world addressed and thereby felt even more attracted to them. Over time the content deteriorated to

unmasked Kremlin propaganda and conspiracy theories. At that time they had encapsuled their audiences ever more in their version of the rabbit hole. Around these outlets a whole cosmos of other websites, newspapers, telegramm and twitter channels, facebook sites etc.

evolved. Also many far-right and far-left parties & politicians, activists etc. used RT and Sputnik as "reliable" source that helps looking behind the "censorship of the main stream media." Thus they acted as amplifiers.

All this was in place when on 13th of January 2020 the first COVID 19 - Virus could be isolated. Seemingly even the Russian propagandists were surprised as the first piece of Russian disinformation appeared, claiming that the Virus was likely manmade & created in NATO-Biolabs.

Afterwards it gained traction and the "Firehose of Falsehoods" did its magic. Main themes: 1) The US and NATO (Bioweapons, Labs) 2) The Elites (and of course Soros, Bill Gates) , 3) Big Pharma 4) Collapse of NATO and EU because of the Virus

That list hits the heart of every trained conspiracy theorist, Querdenker, Freidenker etc. But it gets even better because another propaganda narrative was that COVID 19 is not dangerous at all and can be easily cured. So what now? Dangerous or not?

To make things even more weird they made up prophecies of Nostradamus and Baba Vanga seemingly predicted the Pandemic. All of this happened in the first two months of the pandemic. What we see here is that Russia saturates the information space with many different narratives.

There is no consistency when it comes to these narratives and that´s the whole point. They are designed to reach as many peoples minds as possible. They are designed to mute facts, sow distrust and deflect attention. This was achieved masterfully.

But things get really interesting when it comes to the topic of vaccination. Russia was the first to develope a vaccine - the Sputnik V - and praised it as the best vaccination there is and even started vaccination campaigns. Here some examples from RT-DE:

(I use this examlpes because the anti-vaccination campaigns were quite forcefull in Germany and Austria) While Russia was cracking down on people who didn´t get vaccinated in Russia, they started to sow distrust in western vaccines and started to concentrate on vaccination-damage

This accelerated over the years and while news from Russia phase out, they fully concentrated on everything the allegedly went wrong in the EU and spread and amplified fringe-scientist who spread conspiracy theories and disregared scientific facts.

Meanwhile a whole network of anti-COVID, anti-Vaccination media outlets, clubs, politicians and parties, right-wing activists, left-wing activists developed which merrily shared conspiracy theories - many taken from Russian propaganda but also QAnon etc.

The social-media to organize was Telegram. I´ll showcase this on Austria where all these conspiracy theories were and are well recieved. In Austria this network looks like this: (you can find the report here: https://bundesstelle-sektenfragen.at/wp-content/uploads/Online-MonitoringEINS_WEB.pdf…)

Interesting is who was and is participating in this network: Politicians, Influencers, Clubs, Initiatives, Info-Blogs, right-wing extremists, alternative media, Esotherics, conspiracy theorists. Namely: Herbert Kickl (Head of the FPÖ), Martin Sellner (Head Identitäre Bewegung)

In the present they still spread COVID-Conspiracies but have shifted their attention elsewhere: On Russias War on Ukraine, LGBTQ+, Wokeness. When it comes to Ukraine these networks spread every Russian disinformation there is and help amplify the Kremlins propaganda.

It´s important to acknowledge that these networks that grew during COVID and where many persons found their new "information heaven" are right now used to spread Russian propaganda, sow distrust and further the divide in western democracies.

Russian narratives on Ukraine would never have reached such a big audience without this networks which were already up and running. It´s incredible difficult to reach persons who are entangled in this parallel-universe. A universe that comes with everything

from Quasi-serious news portals to outright conspiracy theorist, far-right extremism, left-wing extremism. They serve everybodies needs. And Russia uses them very well for its own advantage. In order to end democracy and the EU. END