We usually describe Moscow’s approach to peddling disinformation as the Kremlin cycle of lies. Essentially, this approach is centred on four main elements – dismiss, distract, dismay and distort – and the Kremlin has been using this information manipulation tactic for at least a decade.

In focus now: Distortion

With this article we will focus on distortion as an information manipulation tactic. More precisely on the manner in which the Kremlin deliberately uses mistranslations to take advantage of the audience’s unfamiliarity with the source language.

Take the source and mistranslate

Since we last explored the topic in 2019 and 2020, pro-Kremlin outlets have continued to deploy this method of deliberate information manipulation. Some of the more brazen examples include a claim, supposedly made by CNN, that Ukraine’s battle casualties in east Ukraine were so massive that wounded troops had to be transported to overflowing hospitals via special trains; or the fabricated admission by the MI6 director that US and UK spies were aiding Ukraine’s war effort by destabilising Moscow through clandestine operations.

Another example claims that the outgoing Biden administration laid a ‘sanctions trap’ to make it hard for President Trump to lift sweeping sanctions against Russia’s energy sector, and credits the Washington Post with reporting this.

All of these claims, however, are false.

Although they were constructed using only minor semantic distortions of the source language, the ‘translations’ presented to foreign audiences corrupt either the substance or the sentiment of the original, creating a false impression that the original statement reflects the Kremlin’s preferred narrative.

Make your own outlet to claim: Zelenskyy buys Hitler’s car

Compared to 2019, however, this Moscow tactic seems to have undergone certain refinements. One new approach we identified effectively turns the above-mentioned formula on its head: what if, instead of distorting the message related by a trustworthy source, one were to present a pro-Kremlin info-op as a reputable, established media outlet? This is precisely what happened in October 2024, when a slew of Russian state-controlled and other pro-Kremlin news websites reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had forked out some $15 million for an antique automobile once owned by Adolf Hitler.

Meet ‘Seattle Tribune’

Every single one of these outlets duly noted that the ‘story’ had initially been reported by a US news website by the perfectly plausible name of ‘Seattle Tribune’. It soon transpired, however, that the Tribune is neither a news website nor even based in Seattle in the US.

According to BBC Verify, it is highly likely part of a network of disinformation outfits controlled by a US citizen residing in Russia. This ‘news website’ was also eerily similar to a slew of Kremlin-backed Western-sounding outlets we’ve exposed as Operation False Facade. The ‘Tribune’ may have borne a seemingly rebuttable name, but it was essentially peddling some of the most hackneyed disinformation tropes concerning Ukraine.

A tale of two nations – now with human organ harvest

In December 2023, a number of pro-Kremlin news outfits reported, citing witness testimony from a medical NGO employee-turned-whistleblower, that his organisation had been harvesting organs from Ukrainian military personnel and transplanting them to the bodies of ailing NATO officials. The testimony was originally seemingly published by The Nation, a reputable left-leaning political magazine based in the United States, and the above-mentioned outlets credited the source via hyperlinks leading to The Nation website.

The only problem, aside from the actual contents of this news story, is that the media organisation which first published this scoop is not quite the outlet which the readers were led to believe it was. You’ve heard of The Nation, now get ready for The Nation – a Nigerian tabloid website launched in 2006 (the actual Nation magazine is older than electric light) and with a track record of disinforming voters and inciting hate crimes against members of non-existent LGBTQ+ organisations.

RT doesn’t know how footnotes work

Yet another example of a Kremlin-controlled outlet honing its art of distortion is an ingenious, if ultimately transparent, trick performed by RT Arabic (RT Russia Today in Arabic language). Over the past several months, news content citing Western media outlets has begun to rely less on distortion of the source’s message through mistranslation or omission, and more on… footnotes. In one instance, an RT Arabic report cited the US-based conservative magazine The National Interest on US-Russia negotiations concerning the New START Treaty. The original article contains a somewhat problematic passage, from the Kremlin’s point of view, accusing Moscow of exiting the arms control agreement on arbitrary grounds:

‘Despite the [US] administration’s extreme and persistent restraint, Russia withdrew from the New START Treaty, the only remaining arms control treaty limiting the force size of any of the nuclear powers’.

Instead of fabricating a more serviceable quotation, RT Arabic decided to follow the original passage with a colossal wall of text ostensibly designed to provide the reader with much-needed context on a complex topic. In reality, the footnote was little more than an unwieldy summary of existing pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the New START Treaty. The goal was to weaponise the reader’s lack of knowledge of the complex topic of nuclear arms control and turn them into unsuspecting conduits of a foreign state’s information strategy.

The Kremlin aims to manipulate public perception and align narratives with its geopolitical interests by exploiting the audience’s unfamiliarity with source languages and presenting fabricated stories as credible news from reputable outlets.

The examples discussed above demonstrate the need for vigilance, media literacy, and robust fact-checking mechanisms to counteract the spread of disinformation and protect the integrity of information in the digital age.

Don’t be deceived!

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