Leah Bray, the acting coordinator of the Global Engagement Center, a division of the State Department that tracks misinformation and disinformation, said that both in peacetime and now in wartime Russia had used “information manipulation as a weapon to bring about its desired political ends.”
These efforts, the center said in a recent report, have so far been concentrated in the Middle East and Africa, where food shortages have been most acutely felt. And, the report added, the conspiracy theories have spread through Kremlin-controlled state outlets such as RT Arabic and RT en Français, as well as through Chinese state media.
Ms. Bray said she was especially concerned that Russia would manipulate similar emotions this winter, when energy insecurity is almost certain to increase. The intent of the Russians, she added, is to pit Western nations against one another in a blame game over who is responsible for the shortages.
“Russia is going to use these tactics more broadly to seek to erode Western unity,” Ms. Bray said.
With the invasion of Ukraine causing an energy crisis across Europe, the European Union has proposed mandatory electricity cuts, among other measures.
If these ideas have been rather slow to take hold in the United States, that should not be seen as a sign that they won’t soon expand their reach, experts warned.
“There was a long lag with QAnon, too,” said Denver Riggleman, a former intelligence consultant and a staff member for the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol who has worked with the Network Contagion Research Institute. “Then all of a sudden — boom. And that’s what I think we’re looking at here.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/19/business/media/russia-war-food-supply-chain-disinformation.html
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