At the beginning of August, an article was published in Spanish with the provocative title “Why are sacred objects being taken from Ukraine to the West?”. The article describes efforts to send Ukrainian religious artifacts to the US and other countries to plunder Ukraine’s wealth under the pretext of saving it from war.
This is an early example of an influence operation with the broader goal of winning the hearts and minds of Russia throughout Latin America. In addition to the false information published in the article, it has not been established whether the author of the story, Nadia Schwarz, is a real person. It’s also hard to know how well or badly the story spread. Pressenza, which published the article, does not show page views on its website. And the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, has only been viewed 33 times.
The lack of attention is just proof that the Russian operation is still in the “early stages”. This is also one of the reasons why the US State Department issued a statement on November 7 detailing Russia’s disinformation campaign.
The Great Russian Disinformation Campaign
Moscow is funding a massive disinformation campaign across Latin America aimed at undermining international support for Ukraine, the US State Department said in a November 7 press release titled “Kremlin’s Efforts to Covert Disinformation in Latin America.”
The Kremlin plans to use the media of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay and other Latin American countries to carry out a “disinformation campaign”. With this, Russia is trying to undermine support for Ukraine while promoting anti-Western and anti-NATO narratives.
“These activities can include disseminating false content and amplifying information perceived as beneficial to Russian influence efforts or conspiracy theories,” the State Department statement says.
“Moscow seeks to disguise its propaganda, aware that U.S. and European intelligence services always identify their networks, platforms, contacts, and the disinformation web they weave in Latin America and around the world. If this Russian evil machine is not stopped, it will become more aggressive and destructive.”
What is known?
The “Information Manipulation Campaign” has been coordinated by three Russian organizations: Social Design Agency (SDA), the Institute for Internet Development (Институт развития интернета” (ИРИ)) and Structura. These are “influence-for-hire” firms with deep technical capabilities, experience in using open information environments, and a history of spreading disinformation and propaganda to advance Russia’s foreign influence goals.
In July, the European Union imposed sanctions on SDA and Structura, accusing them of spreading propaganda supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Teams in Russia create content that is sent to “cultivated” journalists in Latin America “for review, editing and ultimately publication in mass media”.
The press release notes that the Kremlin’s ultimate goal appears to be to launder its propaganda and disinformation through local media in a way that feels organic to Latin American audiences to undermine support for Ukraine and promote anti-US and anti-NATO sentiment. These activities may include spreading disinformation and amplifying information deemed useful for Russian influence or conspiracy theories.
The disinformation operations active in Latin America seek to counter the United States by portraying it in an evil light and supporting repressive regimes, the report says. With persistent narratives, Russian operations do not limit themselves to media platforms but include outreach efforts aimed at diverse audiences.
This alternative reality, darker than Moscow acknowledges, relies on Kremlin alliances in the region (along with those of like-minded nations such as Iran) to undermine U.S. influence, strengthen authoritarianism, and project a strong international network of Russian allies, the report indicates.
The Russian influence machine supports violent protests in U.S.-partner countries, while concealing executions, abuses, and human rights violations in Moscow-partner nations, it details. Although Russian electoral meddling was identified in Colombia, Mexico, and Bolivia, due to this distortion of the truth, the positive public perception of Russia in the region persisted, until the invasion and massacres in Ukraine.
Covertly and in a big way
“They’ve had some success using RT (Russia Today) and Sputnik in Latin America,” said James Rubin, special envoy and coordinator of the State Department’s Center for Global Engagement.
“The difference is that they are trying to operate secretly. They try to create content in Russia and launder it through Latin American journalists,” said Rubin. “They covertly work with local media and influencers to spread disinformation and propaganda.”
In addition to Pressenza, which is based in Italy and Ecuador and publishes in eight languages, including Spanish, Portuguese and English, the alleged network includes Chile’s El Ciudadano news site, as well as websites serving Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
U.S. officials say it is unclear how many journalists and opinion leaders are aware that they are being fed Russian disinformation. Those connected to the network can be so-called “useful idiots” – relate to Russia’s positions, but do not know that the instructions are coming from Moscow.
Key persons involved
Ilya Gambashidze, director of EU-sanctioned Russian PR firm Social Design Agency (Агентство социального дизайн), is leading a group of malicious influencers made up of SDA and Structura members to carry out an information manipulation campaign against Latin American countries.
In addition to Gambashidze, the persons involved include, but are not limited to, SDA project director Andrei Perla, Structura CEO Nikolai Tupikin, and pro-Kremlin journalist Oleg Yasinsky.
Campaign mechanics
- A cultivated editorial group would be set up in a Latin American country, most likely Chile, which would include a number of local personalities and representatives – journalists and public opinion leaders – from various countries in the region.
- The Russia-based team then creates the content and sends the material to editorial offices in Latin America for review, editing, and eventual publication in the local mass media. In effect, this process of information laundering would see pro-Kremlin content created in Russia “localized” by curated Latin American operatives and published in Latin American media to make it appear organic.
- Translation: The role of Spanish-speaking linguistic editors based in Moscow is an integral part of the campaign. Editors often use pseudonyms to obscure their true identities to ensure information is laundered in a way that feels organic to the target audience.
- Yasinsky (mentioned above) manages and uses a vast network of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking journalists and media outlets to spread pro-Russian messages without compromising his efforts to more naturally assimilate Latin American media content in favor of SDA and Structura.
- Although the network’s operations are mainly carried out with the Spanish-language publishers Pressenza and El Ciudadano, the group has a wider network of media resources at its disposal to further amplify what it publishes.
The hidden hand of the Kremlin
- Campaign themes and success metrics were developed in collaboration with and under the leadership of the Russian government, with Gambashidze, Perla and Tupikin taking the lead in their development.
- Controlling the pro-Kremlin narrative is an important aspect of building an influence campaign targeting Latin America. To this end, Structura’s CEO Tupikin will ensure that the issues remain a priority for the Kremlin.
- The themes of the operations mainly focus on trying to convince Latin American audiences that Russia’s war against Ukraine is fair and that they can join Russia in defeating neo-colonialism.
- These themes align with Russia’s broader narrative that Russia is a champion against neo-colonialism, when in reality Russia is involved in neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism in its war against Ukraine and resource extraction in Africa.
- Russian embassies and state-sponsored media outlets in Latin America are making a concerted effort to spread pro-Kremlin messages, spread anti-US narratives, and develop partnerships between Russian state media, local media outlets and radio stations, embassies of pro-Moscow third countries in the region, and local journalists.
The used images are screenshots from the referenced pages.
