'I take the side of Russia': opinions in favor of Putin increase on the internet
Shaped by some conspiracy theories and Donald Trump's stance towards Russia, some of the online discourse has become more favorable to Putin.
A day before Russia invaded Ukraine, former US President Donald Trump described Russian President Vladimir Putin's war strategy as "pretty smart." His comments were posted on YouTube, Twitter and the Telegram messaging app, where they were viewed more than 1.3 million times.
Right-wing commentators like Candace Owens, Stew Peters, and Joe Oltmann also jumped into the fray online with pro-Putin posts justifying his actions against Ukraine. Oltmann, a conservative podcast host, said on his show this week: "I side with Russia right now."
And in Telegram groups like The Patriot Voice and Facebook groups like Texas for Donald Trump 2020, users criticized President Joe Biden's handling of the conflict and expressed support for Russia, with some saying they trusted Putin more than Russia. Biden.
Online conversations reflect how pro-Russian sentiment has permeated Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, right-wing podcasts, messaging apps like Telegram and some conservative media outlets. When Russia attacked Ukraine this week, that position was extended, coloring online discussions of sympathy — and even approval — for the aggressor.
The positive talk about Russia is an extension of the culture wars and grievance politics that have animated the right wing in America in recent years. In some of these circles, Putin has the appeal of a strong leader, and is seen as someone who gets his way and doesn't let political correctness stop him.
“Putin embodies the strength that Trump pretended to have,” said Emerson T. Brooking, a senior fellow in residence at the Atlantic Council, who studies digital platforms. "For these individuals, Putin's actions are not a tragedy, but a fantasy fulfilled."
Support for Putin and Russia is now expressed online through a mix of facts, observations and opinions, sometimes laced with lies. In recent days, commentators have praised Putin and falsely accused NATO of violating nonexistent territorial agreements with Russia, which they say justifies the Russian president's declaration of war against Ukraine, according to a review of the messages carried out by The New York Times.
Others have spread convoluted conspiracy theories about the war, tinged with a pro-Russian tint. According to one of the most popular lies circulating on the internet, Putin and Trump are working together on the war. Another falsehood points out that the war is to end world elites dedicated to sex trafficking.
According to an analysis by media insights firm Zignal Labs, pro-Russian mentions in English on social media, on cable TV, and in print and digital media rose 2,580 percent over the past week, compared to the first week of February. These mentions appeared 5,740 times in the last week, compared to 214 in the first week of February, according to Zignal.
The stories have flourished in dozens of Telegram channels, Facebook groups and pages and thousands of tweets, according to analysis by the Times. Some of the Telegram channels have more than 160,000 subscribers, while the Facebook groups and pages have up to 1.9 million followers.
(The extent of pro-Russian narratives on social media and internet forums is hard to pin down because bots and organized campaigns make them hard to follow.)
The pro-Russian sentiment is a drastic change from the Cold War, when many Americans saw the Soviet Union as the enemy. In recent years, that attitude has changed, in part due to interference from Russia. Ahead of the 2016 US presidential election, Kremlin-backed groups used social media like Facebook to whip up American voters, creating more divisions and resistance to political correctness.
After Trump was elected, he often spoke favorably — and even admired — Putin. That sown a more positive view of the Russian leader among Trump supporters, disinformation researchers said.
"Putin has invested heavily in sowing discord" and he has found an ally in Trump, said Melissa Ryan, chief executive of Card Strategies, a consultancy that investigates disinformation. "Anyone who studies disinformation or the far right has seen Putin's influence take hold."
At the same time, conspiracy theories spread online, creating deep divisions among Americans. One of these was the QAnon movement, which falsely posits that Democrats are child traffickers and Satan worshipers who are part of an elite trying to control the world.
Now some Americans are viewing the Russia-Ukraine war through the lens of conspiracy theories, disinformation researchers said. Roughly 41 million Americans believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory, according to a survey released Thursday by the Public Religion Research Institute. This week, some QAnon followers claimed online that Putin's invasion of Ukraine was just the next phase of a global war against sex traffickers.
Lisa Kaplan, the founder of Alethea Group, a company that helps combat online disinformation, said pro-Russian statements were potentially damaging because they could "further legitimize false or misleading claims" about the Ukraine conflict "before the eyes of the American people.
Not all online discourse is favorable to Russia, and Putin's actions have been condemned by conservative social media users, mainstream media commentators and Republican politicians. However, some have criticized the way Biden has handled the conflict.
"Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine is reckless and evil," Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, said in a statement on Twitter Thursday.
My statement on Russia's invasion of Ukraine: pic.twitter.com/EWa0i6I74Q
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) February 24, 2022
On Tuesday, Congressman Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who was recently censured by his party for serving on the committee investigating the Jan. 6 uprising, criticized House Republicans for attacking Biden, tweeting that it "feeds the Putin narrative."
However, those with a pro-Russian stance have become louder online. Before the invasion, Gateway Pundit, a far-right website, published an article listing "fun facts" about Russia and Ukraine, including Russian arguments being used as justification for an invasion. The article spread in pro-Trump Facebook groups, reaching as many as 565,100 followers, according to data from CrowdTangle, an analytics tool owned by Facebook.
In a Wednesday podcast, Stephen K. Bannon, a former Trump adviser, also praised Putin for "standing against political correctness." He noted that the Ukrainian conflict "was not our fight."
After the Russian attack began, some internet users justified Putin's motives by mixing them with conspiracy theories about COVID-19. A Twitter account called War Clandestine stated that Putin was attacking biolabs in Ukraine that were operated by the United States. The idea was made more credible, the author said, by a conspiracy theory that the United States engineered the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 in a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Pro-America influencers like Mikel Crump and John Basham, who together have 99,200 followers, amplified the thread. Twitter later suspended the War Clandestine account and a second account by the same user for trying to circumvent the ban, but users continued to post screenshots of the thread.
Twitter noted that the user's accounts were permanently suspended for violating its abusive behavior policy and said it was monitoring pop-up content that violates its rules. Crump and Basham did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some pro-Russian commentators insisted that they were right. Many blamed Biden, bringing up old conspiracy theories about his son Hunter and his work at a Ukrainian gas company when Biden was vice president and involved in diplomatic efforts in the country. There is no proof that the Bidens were wrong, but conservatives seized on this narrative during the 2020 election.
Asked for comment, Oltmann, the conservative podcast host, said: “You really have no idea what's going on in Ukraine. People support Russia because you guys didn't do the right thing when it comes to Biden's fraud and corruption. I pray for the people of Ukraine, but I also pray that the people who facilitated the harmful communist agenda in the United States pay for what they did."
In an email, Owens, the conservative talk show host, also said the war between Russia and Ukraine was Biden's fault. "Ukrainians are dying because of the Biden family's criminal connections and their insistence on fueling conflict in the region," she opined.
The growing appreciation for Putin was reflected in recent polls by The Economist and YouGov, which showed that Republicans viewed him more favorably than Biden. Another recent poll by Yahoo News and YouGov found that 62 percent of Republicans believed that Putin was a "stronger leader" than Biden.
That sentiment was echoed in an informal online poll on Wednesday, when a QAnon influencer asked supporters of the Patriot Voice group on Telegram if they trusted Putin. Almost all answered the same: yes.
