In reality, his full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches its third anniversary and the Russian economy is in serious trouble. Rather than the president of a country about to scale the greatest heights, he sounds like a leader telling people falling from a high building ‘so far so good’ as they pass each floor.
Defending the motherland with lies
Putin did not mention Ukraine in his speech but he signalled that the war against Ukraine and what he calls the “collective West” would continue. This war effort includes the weaponisation of information and current events in a constant torrent of lies and distortions that EuvsDisinfo will continue to expose and counter in 2025. Let’s start with a recap of the main distortions that were pushed over the holidays.
Russia downs another plane…
On 25 December 2024, Russian air defence damaged an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane over Grozny. Russian flight control denied the plane permission to land, forcing it to make an emergency landing across the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan. The Kremlin went through the by-now familiar cycle of denying, deflecting and lying. First, false information was spread that a flock of birds had caused the crash. When photos of the downed plane with the damage surfaced, and only after Azerbaijani President Aliyev demanded Russia take responsibility, Putin apologised for the incident – without acknowledging responsibility – and claimed air defence had been active against Ukrainian drones.
… and blames Ukraine
Besides the initial spin to blame Ukraine, pro-Kremlin outlets quickly claimed that the plane crash had actually been instigated as a provocation to blame Russia. This reflexive distortion of a Russian atrocity is reminiscent of the downing of MH17 more than ten years ago. It also illustrates how Russian disinformation constantly warps the information space by sticking to its own twisted version of reality. Each and every atrocity Russia commits is portrayed as a provocation to blame Russia.
Terror in America… and Ukraine did it
The start of 2025 also brought two tragic incidents in the United States: a terror attack in New Orleans and a suicide bombing in Las Vegas. Before investigations could even begin, Russian disinformation channels were already weaving their narrative. The Las Vegas bomber had worn a ‘Slava Ukraini’ t-shirt in social media photos – apparently enough to suggest Ukrainian intelligence involvement. Similarly, they questioned the FBI’s findings about the New Orleans attack, linking it to what they still call the ‘fabricated’ investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election.
The technique is the same as for the Azerbaijan Airlines incident and fits a broader pattern. Throughout 2024, Russian propaganda tried to paint Ukraine as a global terror threat, fabricating Ukrainian connections to incidents from Moscow to Dagestan and from Slovakia to Syria.
General Kirillov and the missing biolabs
On the other hand, when Ukraine assassinated Russian General Igor Kirillov in Moscow on 17 December, Russian disinformation networks went into overdrive – but with a twist. Instead of the usual playbook of blaming Ukraine for everything, they accused ‘the West’ of the killing. According to their narrative, NATO (or Joe Biden or the CIA or the Deep State) had eliminated Kirillov because he had ‘exposed’ non-existent US biological weapons labs in Ukraine and alleged Western chemical weapons use in Syria.
The reality was different, however. Kirillov, head of Russia’s chemical and biological defence troops, had been sanctioned by the US and UK for his role in deploying chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces. The day before his death, Ukrainian prosecutors had formally charged him with ordering the use of banned chemical weapons in nearly 5,000 attacks since the start of the full-scale invasion.
Adapting the narrative
The response to Kirillov’s death shows how Russian disinformation adapts its narratives to different audiences. For domestic consumption, it reinforces the story of a Russia under siege by the West. For international audiences, it recycles old conspiracy theories about Western biological and chemical weapons programmes. When Russia is caught using chemical weapons in Ukraine, it claims the West is preparing false flag attacks. When a Russian general responsible for chemical weapons use is killed, he suddenly becomes a brave whistleblower exposing Western crimes.
Don’t be deceived!
Also on our disinfo radar over the holidays:
US and Europe behind Ukraine halting gas flow
Ukraine chose not to prolong a deal allowing gas from Russia to flow through Ukraine to EU markets, with deliveries stopped on 1 January. According to some estimations, Russian revenues from gas sales could be reduced by 6.5 billion euro per year. The Russian MFA claimed that Ukraine did not make the decision itself and instead blamed the United States for wanting to profit from selling its own gas and the EU for damaging its own economy. Transnistria, the Russia-dependent breakaway state in Moldova, had been supplied via the same route and is now without gas supply. Russia has already prepared the information space to blame a possible humanitarian crisis on Moldovan President Maia Sandu and the EU.
Norwegian ship refused to rescue Russian sailors
When the Russian cargo ship Ursa Major sank off the Spanish coast after three explosions in late December, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev claimed a Norwegian vessel had refused to rescue its crew. Disinformation channels then accused Norway of Russophobia. In reality, the Norwegian ship Oslo Carrier 3 had secured the Russian lifeboat and followed the instructions of the Spanish coastguard authorities to wait for their vessels, which were already en route. Photos released by the Norwegian ship’s owner showed them assisting until Spanish rescuers arrived. The incident demonstrates how pro-Kremlin outlets try to paint routine international cooperation as anti-Russian discrimination.
The West wants to use terrorists to continue tensions in Syria
Following the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria on 8 December, pro-Kremlin outlets blamed the US for being behind the events. Since then, the disinformation narrative is being pushed that the West is using terrorist groups to ‘continue tensions’ in Syria, even though the US has conducted airstrikes against ISIS targets to prevent the terror group from exploiting the situation.
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