How Russia is pumping out anti-British propaganda
RUSSIA has been pumping out thousands of negative news stories about Britain in a sign it is ‘preparing for a conflict’, a report has claimed.
A staggering 2,270 damaging television clips about the UK have been broadcast over a three-year period as part of a wider disinformation campaign by Russian media to discredit Europe.
Research shows that 84 per cent of all coverage about Britain on three of Russia’s state-backed TV stations has been negative, according to a report by the Ukraine Crisis Media Center, which works with the UK’s Foreign Office to counter Russian disinformation.
Experts said one of the stations even ‘exploited’ the death of Labour MP Jo Cox, who was murdered in June 201 , to suggest ‘life in the UK is very dangerous’.
Nataliya Popovych, who co-authored the report, said: ‘These channels now are totally state controlled and the mouthpiece of the Kremlin.
‘The negative output doubled in 2017 and it is increasing. It is dangerous as it looks like they are preparing themselves for some sort of conflict.’
According to the figures, there were 22,711 negative mentions of European countries during the three-year period. A total of 10 per cent of these were about the UK – the third highest – while 17 per cent targeted France and 12 per cent covered Germany.
Europe was mentioned negatively on average 18 times a day on the channels which were being monitored.
The report said: ‘According to the Russian media, life in Europe is very difficult – a rhetoric that is constantly enforced through the countless passing of myths as facts.’
Miss Popovych said one station broadcast a historical perspective of the UK, highlighting how it had ‘betrayed the Russian interests’. This covered the time of Queen Victoria to Theresa May’s handling of the Skripal nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury. She said: ‘The entire show blasted Theresa May. They admit nothing and deny anything and make accusations. The coverage is both made up of opinions and misinformation.’
Two dozen different narratives surrounding the Skripal poisoning appeared in the Russian media as the state attempted to muddy the waters.
‘Countless passing of myths as facts’