Over the past ten years, Putin’s Russia increased its information influence over audiences abroad. The toolkit of this influence consists of state-sponsored media, such as RT and Sputnik (with planned investments for RT alone of around 307 million Euro in 2022), so-called “troll farms” (such as the “Internet Research Agency”) involved in Russian interference into foreign elections, and networks of proxy mass media outlets.

These proxy outlets pretend to be independent media, but are supported under cover by Russia’s ruling elites. They spread and amplify Russian narratives, aiming either at the global or at the local language audience. These narratives include conspiracy theories, historical revisionism, criticism of Western COVID-19 vaccines, and denunciation of EU, NATO, Ukraine and the Russian opposition.

In this course, we will be analyzing the content published by these proxy outlets. We will try to see how Russia’s disinformation and propaganda manifests itself in their content and will try to establish how they are connected to Russia’s ruling elites.