The Russian leadership launched a disinformation operation in the US in an attempt to undermine military aid to Ukraine. American politicians, in particular Republicans, favor the Kremlin.
This is reported by The Guardian.
What do the experts say?
Disinformation experts note that now the conservative wing of the Republican Party and its media allies have become more active in advocating for the blocking of aid to Ukraine and calling for an audit of American military support.
“Marjorie Taylor Green’s introduction of the resolution to audit aid to Ukraine is not a surprise, given the extremely negative message about Ukraine that has been coming from the right wing of the Republican Party for the past three months,” said Bret Shafer, senior fellow at the Alliance for the Security of Democracies.
In the media field, some of the Kremlin’s most egregious wartime lies aimed at cutting off US aid to Ukraine have been promoted by major figures in the US far-right, from Holocaust denier and racist Nick Fuentes to ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Fox News star Tucker Carlson, whose audience is believed to be in the millions. especially useful for Russian purposes.
Carlson’s pro-Kremlin stance and misrepresentation of the war have been evident from the start and appear to have intensified in recent months. Russian media often rebroadcast the Fox News host’s comments and praised Carlson. “We have entered a new phase in which the United States is directly at war with the world’s largest nuclear power,” Carlson warned his audience with considerable hyperbole in late September.
In addition, in the US, the audience receiving pro-Putin messages has increased thanks to the video sharing platform Rumble. In particular, they host propaganda videos from the Russia Today channel, which ceased operations at the beginning of this year, and which were hosted on other platforms,” says data analyst Megan Squire.
“A simple search for “Ukraine” on Rumble today shows that the top search results are Steve Bannon’s video promoting Marjorie Taylor Green’s demands for an audit of Ukrainian aid funds, and the garbage site Post Millennial, which uses Rumble to promote similar narratives from Tucker Carlson,” she adds.
But in terms of overall impact on American audiences, experts say, Carlson’s megaphone at Fox still overshadows other propaganda tools beneficial to Moscow.
“The audience of Fox News commentators like Tucker Carlson, who often spreads pro-Russian narratives, is clearly orders of magnitude larger than new niche players like Rumble, who often spread Russian disinformation,” said Carnegie Endowment for International Peace vice president for research Andrew Weiss. – Such platforms are much more influential than the more insidious methods used by the Russian propaganda apparatus today.”
With Republicans taking control of the House of Representatives in 2023, these critics of Ukraine aid in Congress and the Moscow-friendly right-wing media are expected to grow in influence. But analysts say they are unlikely to block the Biden administration’s request to Congress in mid-November for more than $37 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine, although they may try to cut it.
Earlier the American publication NYT reported that before the beginning of the invasion, Russia spread the thesis that in Ukraine it is necessary to “fight against Nazism”. Later, the situation changed, and the Russian Federation accused Ukraine of “terrorism” and plans to detonate a dirty bomb” that should blacken Kyiv in the eyes of the West. However, Russia’s claims about a ‘dirty bomb’ were refuted by the Western states as a fake with no evidence.
It is interesting!
Republicans want to tighten control over military aid to Ukraine. In particular, Michael McCaul, who is running for the position of the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives in the USA, announced plans to “ensure greater oversight, transparency and accountability.
