Canada intensifies its fight against Russia’s interference and disinformation: SECU hearing

Canada has intensified its fight against Russia’s interference, influence campaigns, and disinformation. Following the unanimous adoption of a motion to investigate the latest wave of Russia-driven interference and disinformation campaigns, Canada’s Safety and National Security members held a hearing.

Canadian and international experts, including Central European University visiting professor Anton Shekhovtsov, Reset CEO Ben Scott, the Stockholm Freeworld Forum, and Centre for International Governance Innovation (and retired Canadian intelligence officer) Wesley Wark, have briefed Canada’s Safety and National Security members.

The claims outlined in a newly unsealed US Department of Justice complaint against two employees of a Russian-controlled broadcaster who allegedly funneled money to a North American online media outlet, as well as the “Canadian companies and individuals” purportedly “connected to this Russian propaganda effort,” are part of the Canadian investigation into Russia’s hybrid operations.

“I have long observed that Russia is waging a political war against Western nations. By “political warfare,” I mean a gray area in international relations where nations influence the behavior and thinking of others through methods beyond legitimate instruments like diplomacy and soft power without escalating into an open military conflict using regular armed forces. Russian political warfare against the West is nothing new, but it has escalated since 2022, when Western nations decided to provide political, military, and economic support to Ukraine in its defensive war against the full-scale Russian aggression. As a country in the world’s Top 10 donors to Ukraine, Canada is one of the targets of Russian political warfare,” Anton Shekhovtsov stated.

Mr Shekhovtsov said that in the context of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, one leading element of Russian political warfare against the West, including Canada, is an information war in which Russia advances two types of narratives: strategic and tactical. He named three key strategic narratives:

• Russia is a global power that has a right to have its own sphere of influence, and Ukraine belongs there.
• Ukraine, as part of the West, poses an existential threat to Russia.
• NATO is using Ukraine to wage a war against Russia.

According to a visiting professor at Central European University, tactical narratives are individual steps that aim to strengthen the validity of strategic narratives or respond to emergent themes, current events, and developments related to Russian aggression. And he named several tactical narratives about pro-Russian influence actors in the West.

• Ukraine is run by Nazis;
• Financial aid sent to Ukraine is being pocketed by corrupt Ukrainian leaders and officials;
• Western weapons given to Ukraine will end up with international terrorists or on the black market;
• Providing military aid to Ukraine does not help Ukraine win the war; it only extends their suffering.
• The West should not oppose Russia because it can eventually use nuclear weapons.

According to Mr. Shekhovtsov, pro-Russian actors use a wide range of tools in their attempt to deliver both strategic and tactical narratives to targeted audiences:

1. Official Russian channels include statements from the Russian President and his Presidential Administration, as well as those from Russian ministries, particularly the Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry.
2. Russian state-controlled media, particularly those that produce content in the English language, are under control.
3. Russian pro-regime stakeholders run social network accounts either openly or secretly;
   Agents of malign Russian influence based in the West include academics, experts, journalists, celebrities, producers, political actors, businesses, and religious organizations, among others.
4. Russian pro-regime stakeholders create and/or use front organizations in Western countries to hide their pro-Russian agenda.

Canadian government has not done enough to stop Russian disinformation – Chyczij

Earlier, on October 2, hearings about Russian hybrid influence targeting Canada took place at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU).

The Canadian government has not done enough to stop the ongoing, insidious, and destructive disinformation attacks by Russia on the Ukrainian community and democratic institutions in the country, said Alexandra Chyczij, National President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, during Canadian parliamentary hearings in the House of Commons.

“The Ukrainian Canadian community has been the target of Soviet and now Russian disinformation for many decades,” stated Chyczij. “The Canadian government has not acted forcefully enough to counter these persistent, insidious and destabilizing Russian attacks on our community or Canadian democratic institutions.”

Canada’s efforts to combat Russian disinformation

The Canadian government reported that Russian disinformation affects Canadians, making it more challenging to distinguish fact from fiction when disinformation floods the information space. Extended exposure to disinformation has the potential to shape Canadians’ views on current events, polarize opinions, undermine trust in democratic institutions, and exacerbate societal divisions within Canadian society, according to the report.

The Kremlin continues to use disinformation to justify and garner support for its illegal, unprovoked, and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine. Russia conceals, blurs, and fabricates information to gain military advantage, demoralize Ukrainians, divide allies, and sow confusion and division.

Canada’s efforts to combat Russian disinformation and information manipulation include exposing disinformation, sanctioning disinformation agents, and coordinating international responses, among other actions.

Recent Russian disinformation operation targeted Prime Minister Trudeau

A major Russian disinformation news website featuring anti-Trudeau articles prompted calls for a renewed focus on public inquiry in September. A website RRN at the heart of Russia’s disinformation network has produced more than a dozen articles about Canadian politics in an apparent attempt to undermine support for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The RRN articles about Canadian politics focus on controversies involving the Liberal government, often supplying inaccurate descriptions of its policies and ridiculing Trudeau. Others refer to him as the “incompetent prime minister” and suggest that he would be “better suited to a role in a political satire alongside Volodymyr Zelenskyy.”

U.S. authorities seized a domain that hosted RRN, though it continues to operate on another domain. Authorities describe RRN as a tool to “further the malign influence campaign” that Russia is waging in support of its war of aggression against Ukraine.

Canada condemned Russia’s interference in the US election

The day after the Biden administration announced a number of measures against the Kremlin’s disinformation machine, Canada condemned reports that Russia is trying to use disinformation tactics to rig the U.S. presidential election. Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a statement that Canada has been cooperating with the US and other partners in this investigation.

In an effort to confront Russia for alleged meddling in the November election, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a number of measures, including criminal charges against two employees of the state-run media outlet RT and the seizure of internet domains that authorities claim the Kremlin uses to disseminate false information.

LeBlanc declared that Canada and its allies would not hesitate to take the necessary actions in order to combat Russian aggression and hybrid operations against democracies.

71% of Canadians heard at least one Russian narrative – DisinfoWatch research

DisinfoWatch and the Canadian Digital Media Research Network polled 2,127 Canadians in the spring of 2024 to find out how vulnerable they were to various prominent Kremlin narratives about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

They found that 71% of Canadians had heard at least one Russian narrative, with an average exposure of 2.1 narratives. When exposed to Kremlin narratives, a significant percentage of Canadians either accept them as factual or are unsure that they are untrue.

The Kremlin storylines that the researchers examined and monitored were those that frequently appeared in statements made by the Russian government, officials, and diplomats, as well as on state-controlled media outlets like RT and Sputnik.

• “The Ukrainian government is corrupt and is stealing financial aid intended for the country.”
• “NATO and Ukraine provoked the war with Russia.”
• “Russia is at war because it is attempting to defend itself against Nazis in Ukraine.”
• “Sending aid to Ukraine makes no sense.”
• “Ukraine should cede its eastern territory to Russia to restore peace.”

Studies have indicated that influencers affiliated with the Russian regime, whether or not they gain anything from it, propagate these narratives among audiences on all sides of the political aisle in western democracies, including Canada. These influencers’ social media presence transcends national boundaries. Canadian audiences share content from influencers in Canada, the US, and other countries.

Russia weaponizes far-right and far-left to undermine support for Ukraine – Canadian researchers

Brian McQuinn led a team of experts who conducted extensive research on Russia’s influence campaigns in Canada, concluding that Russia weaponizes the far-right and far-left parties in the country to undermine support for Ukraine.

Analysts have seen identical strategies employed by the Kremlin in the EU countries. (Report: Russia’s Weaponization of Canada’s Far Right and Far Left to Undermine Support for Ukraine).

The vast majority of the influential pro-Russian Canadian accounts were far right or far left in their political views. The analysts concluded that these networks belonged to influential political communities on the internet.

The sophistication and proliferation of Canada-tailored narratives suggest a highly organized and well-funded effort to target Canadian support for Ukraine.

Canadian influencers allegedly involved in Russian influence campaigns

A Quebec right-wing social media star and her partner are at the core of a US investigation into an alleged multimillion-dollar Russian state-sponsored influence campaign, according to an indictment released in early October, CBC reported.

The criminal indictment alleges that officials from RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet that has been prohibited in Canada and the UK since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, devised a scheme to “shape public opinion” that relied heavily on a right-wing Tennessee-based company with several Canadian ties.

Those RT officials reportedly channeled roughly $10 million “through a network of foreign shell entities” to the Tennessee digital media company. The complaint does not name the media outlet, but the prosecutors’ descriptions align with those of Tennessee-based Tenet Media, founded by social media star Lauren Chen and her husband, Liam Donovan. The indictment refers to Ms. Chen and Mr. Donovan as “Founder-1” and “Founder-2,” rather than by their names.

Ms. Chen and Mr. Donovan have not faced any criminal charges. The charge is against two RT officials, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, who authorities say committed money laundering and violated regulations requiring them to register as foreign agents.

According to the accusation, Mr. Kalashnikov and Ms. Afanasyeva enlisted Ms. Chen and Mr. Donovan to help them disseminate pro-Russian messaging and “sow domestic divisions and thereby weaken opposition to Government of Russia objectives.”