By EUvsDisinfo
On 9-11 July, NATO’s 75th Summit took place in Washington, DC. From Ukraine’s perspective, the summit was a success. The NATO allies signed a declaration that condemned Russia’s invasion, vowed long-term support for Ukraine, committed them to shoring up their own defences, and pushed to deepen NATO’s cooperation with the European Union.
For Moscow, it was different. Here we run through the biggest disinformation narratives coming from Moscow.
For its part, Russia reminded everyone why NATO is as relevant as ever when its forces dropped a cruise missile on a children’s hospital in Kyiv, killing two workers and four children. At least 42 people died in a broader wave of missile attacks across Ukraine. With the timing and size of these particular large Russian attacks, it is hard not to interpret this as an attempt to demoralise Ukrainians as well as NATO leaders.
The Kremlin, an expert at trying to evade responsibility, immediately shot into deny-deflect-distract mode. Its proxies alleged, without evidence, that Ukraine had somehow blown up its own hospital or like the Kremlin Spokesperson suggesting that debris from Ukrainian missiles had somehow managed to cause the building to collapse. The Russian ambassador to the US grotesquely alleging that the attack was an ‘excellent gift’ to justify further Western escalation of the war.
Perceptions in the upside-down world of the Kremlin
Often, Kremlin disinformation narratives bear resemblance to what photographers call a ‘negative’ where light colours become dark, and vice-versa. The effect is for an image to preserve its form while conveying the opposite of its original impression. So it is for Russian outlets’ reaction to the Kyiv children’s hospital attack. Invert the obvious. Turn light to black, and black to white.
During the NATO Summit, this ‘negative’ dynamic was much at work. Russian state and pro-Kremlin outlets took the most common-sense impressions and neatly reversed them all to create a nightmarish fantasy with the following disinformation narratives.
NATO, an alliance of peace vs ‘NATO, the warmongering global menace’
Pro-Kremlin disinformation peddlers do not entertain the idea that NATO, working with the EU, might be trying to protect its members from Russia. Instead, in this ghostly echo of reality, NATO is a warmongering menace trying to push Europe into a war with Russia.
Examples include a piece of disinformation alleging that the Summit is setting is setting itself on an ‘irreversible’ path to war by opposing Russian ambitions. This piece in turn claims that NATO intends ‘to expand without evaluating the consequences’. Replace ‘NATO’ with ‘Russia’, and you have a more accurate picture of the war in Ukraine. And another, perhaps referring to NATO enlargement, asserts that NATO seeks more territories to make them loyal servants of American hegemony. The disinformer gives, not surprisingly, no consideration to the fact that countries might actually want to become new allies in order to protect themselves from Russian threats. Such as the example of Sweden and Finland.
NATO is helping Ukraine vs ‘NATO is exploiting Ukraine’
An only slightly less prominent false narrative spread during and around the summit concerned Ukraine. Most people might think that NATO and the EU are helping Ukraine by giving it weapons and supplies it needs to defend itself against Russia’s continuing aggression. But you fail to see the photo-negative picture of the world that Kremlin minions see.
In this reality-reversal, Western countries are apparently exploiting Ukraine. How? By treating Ukraine as a battleground that they use to attack Russia. A recent example alleged as much. Note the neat inversion of cause and effect, or white colours with dark colours. By helping Ukrainians defend themselves, NATO is ensuring that more Ukrainians die, right?
Except NATO isn’t killing Ukrainians. Russia is.
Note also the implied assertion of Ukraine’s ‘false consciousness’. In the Kremlin’s view, Ukrainians who resist Russia don’t know what’s good for them. They must be ‘brainless’, ‘indoctrinated’, ‘Nazi zombies’, marching blindly without will towards the front lines. And sure enough, pro-Russian propagandists have said just that, time and again.
The original photo – the reality – shows that Ukrainians know very well what’s good for them. They are resisting Russia’s attempt at cultural, linguistic, and very much literal genocide with all means at their disposal. And as for the idea that Ukraine would be better off surrendering, we’ve seen what massacres Russian soldiers can inflict when Ukrainians come under Russian occupation.
NATO is more important than ever vs ‘NATO is a failing wreck’
You might think that Russia’s aggression in Ukraine has strengthened NATO. After all, it has two new members, both of whom were formerly non-allied countries who joined the alliance in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion. And at the summit, its members committed $43 billion in military aid to Ukraine this year.
But that’s not the case for the Kremlin. In Russia state and Kremlin-minded mouthpieces, the summit was often portrayed as an insignificant failure. NATO itself, in this make-believe universe, is losing the war in Ukraine, is floundering and desperate, and is deeply divided.
Meanwhile, Russia continues to throw men and material into a stalemate of its own creation. Credible and recent estimates suggest over 100,000 Russians have died due to Putin’s ill-conceived and reckless decision to fully invade a sovereign country, and somewhere around half a million have been severely wounded. The numbers are great enough that the war is having a profoundly devastating impact on Russia’s already deteriorating demography.
Pro-Kremlin illusionists make a Herculean effort not to appear desperate.
NATO is calling out China vs ‘NATO is attacking China’
Finally, it is true that NATO members would like China to stop helping Russia. The alliance said as much in its declaration, when it declared the Russia and China’s ‘deepening strategic partnership’ is ‘a cause for profound concern.’ The statement called out China for, among other things, becoming a ‘decisive enabler of Russia’s war against Ukraine’. But it also balanced these calls with a pledge that the alliance remains ‘open to constructive engagement’ with China.
As diplomatic statements go, this was clear. But it was also informative, and laid down lines for future negotiations. As such, it was the opposite of irredeemably hostile.
But for pro-Kremlin outlets, it might as well have been a declaration of war. A typical disinformation piece claimed that NATO is using the threat of China as a pretext to maintain US hegemony in the Pacific. Another alleged that the alliance wants to ‘gain political advantages’ by extending its influence into the Asia-Pacific.
A wrinkle in this particular false narrative posits that Europeans are mere puppets carrying out the nefarious militaristic and hegemonic designs of their American masters through NATO. For example, one piece in May alleged that the European Union is not democratic, but merely NATO’s political arm.
Recent European parliamentary elections demonstrated that European democracy is alive and kicking. But then again, our positive-image world is what the Kremlin attempts to turn black.
By EUvsDisinfo
