President Putin's disinformation campaign aims to win Russian hearts and minds with an "alternative version of events"
On Russian state TV, videos of slaughtered civilians and other atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine are labeled as fake. The state-controlled media has also claimed the massacre in the Ukrainian town of Bucha was perpetrated by Ukrainian forces.
It's all part of the Kremlin's disinformation campaign to maintain public support for its invasion of Ukraine and make trouble for democracies around the world, experts say. The campaign — promoted on TV and online — also aims to increase President Vladimir Putin's domestic approval rating during the conflict.
Samuel Ramani, an expert on Russian foreign policy, said that is classic Russian disinformation.
"They're trying to create a degree of uncertainty," he told CBS News senior foreign correspondent Holly Williams.
"They're trying to enable anti-establishment voices — in the far left, in the far right — about an alternative version of events," Ramani said. "They've been stoking these conspiracies amongst those groups for years, and they're also trying to erode, more indirectly, public trust in government institutions, liberal democracy and the media."
Russia brought in new laws last month making it a criminal offense to report anything that contradicts the government's version of events about the invasion, and while some Russians have risked arrest to protest against the war, Putin's approval rating went up to 83% after the invasion, according to one poll.
"We'll take this land for ourselves," a woman said on Russian state TV. "It used to be that way before."
Russia's outlandish claims that videos of its atrocities in Ukraine were somehow staged or carried out by Ukrainians were quickly debunked, including with satellite images, but it continues to be shared on social media — planting seeds of doubt in the minds of some outside of Russia.
The U.S. has been warning about Russian lies since before the invasion, including unfounded accusations that Ukraine is committing genocide.
Even Putin's justification for his war is disinformation. This month he doubled down on his claim that he is trying to rid Ukraine of Nazis, despite the fact that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish, and repeated the allegation that Russian atrocities were somehow faked.
The most powerful weapon against Russian lies may come from Ukraine itself. Zelenskyy's fledgling democracy is fighting back by shining a light on the horrors of Russia's attacks and giving journalists wide-ranging access to the conflict zone.
At a recent United Nations meeting, Zelenskyy showed graphic videos of the war while demanding justice and more weapons from the West.
"He is a master communicator, a master persuader, even in a dark moment of crisis like this, bringing humor, bringing relatability and kind of just rallying international opinion quite effectively," Ramani said. "So the Russians are losing the information war in part because of Zelenskyy's prowess at that."
