How Russian state propagandists use American right-wing media to spin the war in Ukraine

On Thursday, The New York Timesdetailed how the Kremlin, faced with setbacks in the Ukraine invasion and civil unrest at home over the human and economic tolls from the war, is plumbing right-wing television and social media in the United States to fuel their propaganda operation to spin the war.

"Spinning together a counternarrative for tens of millions of viewers, Russian propagandists plucked clips from American cable news, right-wing social media and Chinese officials. They latched onto claims that Western embargoes of Russian oil would be self-defeating, that the United States was hiding secret bioweapon research labs in Ukraine and that China was a loyal ally against a fragmenting West," reported Paul Mozur, Adam Satariano, and Aaron Krolik.

"Day by day, state media journalists sharpened those themes in emails. They sometimes broadcast battlefield videos and other information sent to them by the successor agency to the K.G.B. And they excerpted and translated footage from favorite pundits, like the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, whose remarks about the war were shown to millions of Russians," said the report. "'Be sure to take Tucker,' one Russian news producer wrote to a colleague. The email referred to a clip in which Mr. Carlson described the power of the Chinese-Russian partnership that had emerged under Mr. Biden — and how American economic policies targeting Russia could undermine the dollar’s status as a world-reserve currency."

But it isn't just Fox News. According to the report, even U.S. local news has also helped the Russians sell the war effort.

"On March 3, an ABC affiliate in Huntsville, Ala., ran a segment about rising gas prices," said the report. "The clip showed how some in the area were pasting stickers on the pump with a photo of President Biden saying, 'I did that.' It quoted a local gas station manager, who worried the stickers could cause trouble during corporate inspections." This clip ended up being flagged by the All-Russia State Television and Radio Company, or V.G.T.R.K., the organization the Kremlin filters its propaganda through, and got broadcast on Russian TV, where reporters boasted inflation was causing unrest in the United States following Russian sanctions cutting off their oil market.

The FSB, or Russian security service, even pointed Russian broadcasters to talking points when they needed to excuse Russian war atrocities.

"State media took cues from the F.S.B. and the Ministry of Defense about how to cover events that drew international outrage, according to the documents," said the report. "After the March bombing of a theater in Mariupol, where civilians were believed to be seeking cover, the military sent an email to V.G.T.R.K. and other state media with the subject 'Important!' It provided a video of a woman who said members of a Ukrainian nationalist group had blown up the theater, not the Russian military. 'Please use in stories,' the note said."