Russia’s “Weaponization” of Information

Testimony Presented to the House Foreign Affairs Committee

April 15, 2015

Helle C. Dale

My name is Helle Dale. I am Senior Fellow for Public Diplomacy in the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation. The views I express in this testimony are my own, and should not be construed as representing any official position of The Heritage Foundation.

Audiences within reach of Russia’s growing media empire are increasingly subjected to manipulation and rampant anti-Americanism.[1] This trend has intensified since the Russian annexation of Crimea and its invasion of Eastern Ukraine in 2014. Through its global network, Russia Today (RT), the Kremlin broadcasts globally in five major languages, including on cable TV stations in the United States. Free Western media has no comparable presence in Russia.

Russian propaganda is corrosive to the image of the United States and to our values. Or as Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Victoria Nuland described it before this committee on March 4, “the Kremlin’s pervasive propaganda campaign, where is truth is no obstacle.” And Russian propaganda is being spread aggressively around the world as we have not seen it since Soviet days. This is not just in Central Asia, and Eastern and Central Europe, but even here in the West. The daily content and commentary from RT and others is often polished and slickly produced. And it’s not like old-fashioned propaganda, aimed solely at making Putin and Russia look good. It’s a new kind of propaganda, aimed at sowing doubt about anything having to do with the U.S. and the West, and in a number of countries, unsophisticated audiences are eating it up.

China moves ahead to develop sixth-generation fighter

 

China is moving ahead to develop a sixth-generation stealth fighter after it finishes the fifth-generation J-20 and J-31, Igor Korotchenko, head of the Centre for Analysis of World Arms Trade, has told the Moscow-based Voice of Russia.

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China’s passive radar can detect US stealth fighters: Russian expert

China’s DWL002 passive-detection system is capable of directing Chinese air defense systems against enemy stealth fighters, Vassily Kashin, a senior research fellow from the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, told the Voice of Russia on Oct. 1.

Beijing tests anti-satellite missile: Voice of Russia

China has taken another step towards challenging US supremacy in the space race after successfully testing a “non-destructive” anti-satellite missile on July 23, reports the Chinese-language website of the Voice of Russia, the Russian government’s international radio broadcasting service.

According to China’s official Xinhua news agency, the country’s Ministry of National Defense announced a successful missile intercept test that “achieved the preset goal,” which sources from the US State Department confirmed with “high confidence” was an anti-satellite missile that aims to destroy targets through impact and does not cause an explosion.

US should be worried about China’s artificial island: expert

Vassily Kashin, a Russian defense expert from the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, says the amount of money spent by China to build an artificial island in a disputed part of the South China Sea is enough to build a brand-new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to the Voice of Russia.

PLA’s new destroyer could bring down F-35 stealth fighter

The US fifth-generation F-35 stealth fighter can be detected by the radar system installed aboard the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s new Type 052D destroyers, according to the Moscow-based Voice of Russia, citing military experts.

Vladimir Evseev, director of the Moscow-based Center for Social and Political Studies, told the Russian broadcaster that details of China’s radar project, including the amount spent on its development, remain unknown, however it is a great leap forward in regards to the nation’s military modernization program.

Putin’s Direct Threat: We Are Ready to Crash the Dollar (from Voice of Russia)

We have been saying for years that there is a global economic war underway. We have warned that Putin has long intended to attack America with a particular obsession with the reserve currency status of the United States’ dollar. Now, Voice of Russia states that it is time for the attack on the dollar to commence. This is a departure from the previous message on March 28 which stated:

“Russia is fully in control of the petrodollar and could cause the Dow Jones industrial average to plummet as it has never done before. One can wave the Stars and Stripes as long as one likes, but it’s a fact that the Russians can turn the US economy upside down . . . So far, Moscow has been in no rush to resort to extreme measures. Russia is going to react in a mirror-like way . . .”

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Lately, China has led the BRICS efforts to dislodge the dollar from its position as the main global currency, but the “sanctions war” between Washington and Moscow gave an impetus to the long-awaited scheme to launch the petroruble and switch all Russian energy exports away from the US currency .

Russia and China dig a channel vying with the Panama Canal

China and Russia arе embarking on a big geopolitical and economic venture of laying in Nicaragua a rival to the USA brainchild, the Panama Canal.

This was disclosed to the “Voice of Russia” by Petr Yakovlev, the head of the Center for Iberian Studies, Institute of Latin America, Russian Academy of Sciences. The expert said that Russian companies are holding talks with Chinese partners on how to participate in this strategic project in Latin America.

The start of the construction is planned for December 2014. Longer time slots had been proposed earlier. It is possible that adjustments have been made ​​following the probable participation of Russian companies in the project. Given the confidentiality of negotiations, Peter Yakovlev did not reveal the names of the Russian companies participating in them.

China could defeat US in East Pacific conflict by 2020: Russian analyst

In a commentary published on Dec. 27 on the website of the Voice of Russia, the Russian government’s international radio broadcasting service, Kashin says it is “highly probable” that by 2020 China could defeat the US in a local conflict in the east part of the Pacific or slow down the transportation of US forces to the region after it completes its current cycle of reforming and rearming the People’s Liberation Army.

“China could be able of reaching its political goals even before the US localizes all the necessary forces for a full-scale counterattack,” Kashin said.

Kremlin ‘Liquidates’ Its Own State News Agencies

To summarize, what’s transpiring is the changing of agency names whereas the propaganda will stay the same. Same lie or half-truth, different face.

Russia announced today that it will shut down state media outlets RIA Novosti and Voice of Russia and roll them into the new Rossiya Segodnya. Oddly enough, RIA Novosti was the first to report a sad, sad account of its own imminent dissolution.

BRICS countries come close to establishing reserve bank

The BRICS member-countries have come close to establishing a reserve bank which will operate as a stabilization fund, Chinese Finance Minister Chen Zhu Guangyao said. Should such a fund be set up, it will prove helpful in restricting the dollar’s influence on the developing countries’ economies, experts say.

Russians Conduct Huge Nuke Drill

While the U.S. continues to “reset”, the neo-Soviet Union continues to restart.

“Treaties are like pie crusts, they are made to be broken” – Vladimir Lenin

Russian nuclear forces hold large exercise involving movement of strategic and tactical warheads

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The exercise raised concerns inside the Pentagon and with the U.S. European Command because it was the largest exercise of its kind in 20 years and involved heightened alert status of Russian nuclear forces.

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The exercises followed a recent surge in Russian strategic bomber flights that include a recent circling of the U.S. Pacific island of Guam by two Tu-95 Bear bomber and simulated bombing runs by Tu-95s against Alaska and California in June and July.