Sao Paulo
The administration of Joe Biden explained this Tuesday (7) that Russia has sponsored a disinformation campaign across Latin America, including Brazil, to spread false news that undermines support for Ukraine, with which it is at war and AntiAmerican and antiNATO supporters are intended to inspire (Western Military Alliance) sentiment.
The accusation was made in a statement from the Foreign Ministry. The text states that Moscow is financing a process of “information laundering” with the help of local media and digital influencers. The base for the distribution of the network would be Chile.
Washington draws attention to four people against whom it is escalating the allegations. They are: Ilia Gambachidze, head of the PR agency Social Design; Andrei Perla, project manager at the same company; Niklai Tupikin, CEO of the company Structura, and journalist Oleg Iasinski who, according to his profile on X, formerly Twitter, lives in Santiago, Chile.
“Moscow sows disinformation and amplifies language using a network of channels and social media and intensifies this content to further penetrate the Western information environment,” the note said.
“This involves the spread of false content as well as the spread of information and conspiracy theories that Moscow considers useful.”
Brazil is only briefly mentioned in the note, alongside other neighboring countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba and Peru. The reporter contacted the Russian Embassy in Brasília late Tuesday afternoon but received no response as of the publication of this text.
The American government claims that the disinformation network’s central goals are to “convince the Latin American public that Russia’s war against Ukraine is just and that societies in the region must unite with Moscow to defeat neocolonialism.”
“These are issues consistent with Russia’s false narrative that it is a key player in the fight against neocolonialism, when in reality it is involved in the new imperialism, both in neighboring Ukraine and in the exploitation of resources in African countries “, the text continues. .
American diplomacy also indicates that Chile would be a kind of base for the distribution and translation of content into Spanish and Portuguese and their subsequent distribution to channels in neighboring countries. The note also mentions Chilean digital native El Ciudadano and news agency Pressenza, which states on its website that it originated in Italy and is now registered in Quito, Ecuador.
This is not the first time that Washington, Kiev’s main ally in the war in Eastern Europe, has accused Moscow of running disinformation networks a similar accusation has already been made in connection with Russia’s actions in Africa, for example. Vladimir Putin’s country has been expanding its influence on the continent for years, both in its economic agenda and in the presence of mercenaries from the Wagner paramilitary group.
This time, the accusation against Latin American states had been the subject of work by the US State Department’s Global Engagement Center for months.
Speaking to The New York Times last October, James Rubin, the center’s coordinator, explained that the operation was still in its infancy, but its goal was to “expose Russia’s hidden hand” in the production of texts that appeared to be by Local media came from organizations not in the Russian government.
One of the episodes that would have accelerated the investigation was the publication of a text in Pressenza in August that repeated false information that the West was looting religious relics from a monastery in the capital Kiev that was a holy place for the Russians. Orthodox would be church.
Also in October, the same State Department center released a statement declaring that the organization Nova Resistência, the Brazilian affiliate of New Resistance, would be part of a proKremlin disinformation network to “target authoritarian regimes on both the left and the left.” to support”. right”.
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