Saturday, March 1, 2025

Context

Stories in the Context section are not fakes. We publish them in order to provide greater insight for our readers about the techniques, methods and practices used by the Russian government in its information war. They appear on our site with the permission of their original publisher and reflect the views of the authors and not necessarily the position of StopFake’s editorial board.

MH17 – The Open Source Evidence

This report can be downloaded as a PDF here. Introduction This report summarizes the open source investigations into the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) on...

Initial Findings of the Crowdsourced Geolocation and Analysis of Russian MoD Airstrike Videos from...

Yesterday Bellingcat launched an effort to use the Checkdesk platform to geolocate and collect additional information on videos posted by the Russia Ministry of Defence...

Russian Propaganda, Disinformation, and Estonia’s Experience

The international community faces serious challenges arising from a new mode of information warfare, which Russia has deployed during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in 2014-2015....

Russia launches media offensive on Syria bombing

"Russian air force begins bombing terrorist positions in Syria," screams the front of Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda. Coverage of Russian air strikes in Syria has...

Ukrainians Turning Away From Russian Media In 2015, Survey Finds

Internews’ annual media consumption survey shows a dramatic drop in Ukrainians’ use of Russian media. The survey shows that Russian TV viewership shrank to...

Waging a Proxy War on Russian Journalism

Much has been said since 2014 about Russia's proxy war in Ukraine, where Russian troops and equipment are often reported and even sometimes captured, but with official...

‘Cold as Ice’: Canada’s Election, as Told Through Russian Propaganda

Sputnik News, dubbed the "Buzzfeed of propaganda," has been paying particular attention to the current Canadian federal election. And it is bizarre. The news agency's...

When Online Kremlin Propaganda Leaves the Web, It Looks Like This

In previous investigative pieces for RuNet Echo, Lawrence Alexander has exposed a large network of pro-Kremlin websites, and (together with Aric Toler) provided an in-depth...

Fact-checking Vladimir Putin’s speech at the UN

On September 28, 2015 Russian President Vladimir Putin took the stage at the UN General Assembly for the first time in a decade. “Putin...

To combat Kremlin’s message, West gets into Russian broadcasting biz

Jelena Solomina, a petite blond, and Dmitri Pastuhhov, whose wavy mane of hair is pulled back with sunglasses, pace across their unfinished television studio...