In Russia, the information war is raging

In Russia, on television, the media evoke the Ukrainian conflict, but with chosen words. The invasion in Ukraine is presented as a special operation of liberation. No image of the Russian attacks is shown. In contrast, the media are beginning to honor their fallen heroes in stories that are followed by a large part of the Russian population.

A journalist asks a Russian who she trusts. The woman responds immediately: “Russia, who else can I believe? I totally support Putin”. “It’s the foreign media that say all this bullshit”, thinks another Russian. Young people say they get information via social networks, which they believe are more reliable. On the morning of March 4, the Russian Parliament passed a new law called “against fake news”. It is forbidden to disseminate information on the country’s army, on pain of imprisonment. Facebook has just been blocked in Russia. A journalist admits to having deleted all her posts on Ukraine, because it has become risky to talk about it.