Most anti-Ukraine narratives on pro-Kremlin Telegram channels aim to destabilise the situation in Ukraine, IMI study shows
Currently, the dominant anti-Ukraine narratives promoted by the Kremlin's Telegram channels are the "army/government conflict", the "rift in Ukrainian society", the "Ukraine under external rule" and "Zelensky is illegitimate". These same narratives can be traced in the Kremlin's traditional mass media.
This is evidenced by the study "The Transformation of Old Russian Propaganda Narratives and the Emergence of New Ones", carried out by the Institute of Mass Information in February 2024.
According to the study, the messages disseminated by pro-Russian Telegram channels are effectively indistinguishable from state propaganda in Russia's traditional mass media, which indicates that pro-Russian Telegram channels are under the Kremlin's control. It also points to a clear information policy with coordinated narratives aimed both at the domestic audience in Russia and at the external one.
"Despite Kremlin propaganda flourishing in the Russian Telegram channels, the messages still tend to become softer, as was recorded by media experts in 2023. For example, only the Ukrainian government and the President are now called 'neo-Nazis', as opposed to all Ukrainians. In fact, hate speech is mainly used to refer to the President and the Ukrainian military command. We are witnessing a drop in hate speech referring to the UAF as a whole, as well. Instead, messages that can influence Ukrainian society, such as 'fighting to the last Ukrainian,' remain active," says the study.
The study was carried out on February 10 to 20, 2024. It covered the Telegram channels run by Russian propagandists (Soloviev, Simonyan, Tsarev, Zakharova, Podolyak, Prilepin) and those of Russian media outlets: RIA Novosti, "Argumenty i Fakty", "Lenta.ru", RBC, Gazeta.ru, TASS, RG.ru.
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