EuroFile@6 with Jonathan Fink and Livia Ponzio- Ukraine, Russia and Disinformation
Since I’m travelling, EuroFile will be published in a reduced format. It’ll be business as usual by Saturday.
ICYMI: Scott and I were joined by Jonathan Fink of Silicon Curtain Podcast, a historian who specialised in Russian history, and Livia Ponzio, disinformation and information warfare expert, a regular panelist on EuroFile@6.
We discuss the war in Ukraine from many angles, and what the new trends are in Russian narratives and information warfare.
Putin's time in the KGB taught him 'how to lie' and to think like a terrorist, ex-spies say- Insider
"Putin's KGB background tells us a lot about how he thinks and how he sees the war. He is a creation of the KGB, and the KGB was a terrorist organization," John Sipher, a former CIA officer who served in Russia, told Insider. "It was all about keeping the leadership in power at all costs. It killed any domestic opposition to the [Communist] Party and used subversion abroad."
Sipher, who worked for the CIA's clandestine service for nearly three decades, said Russia's indiscriminate warfare against Ukraine is part of a "KGB/terrorist mindset."
"The Russian services have long spent far more of their time on things like disinformation, sabotage, deception, agitation, and assassination," Sipher said, adding, "What we have seen from Putin over the past 20 years are these same asymmetric attacks. Like a terrorist group that can't take on enemies directly, he looks for weaknesses to exploit, and soft targets to attack."
Russian propaganda preparing for defeat
The Kremlin has prepared handbooks for propagandists to explain to Russians the likely impending retreat from Kherson — Meduza writes.
The first handbook indicates that the Kherson direction is "the most difficult for the Russian army at the current stage of special operations", and the Armed Forces of Ukraine will allegedly destroy the city.
Another reason for a possible retreat — Ukraine and NATO "threw all their forces" in the Kherson direction to arrange a "bloody show for the whole world".
The second handbook specifies that propaganda should "pay attention" to the speech of the member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Anatoly Torkunov.
At a meeting with Putin, he recalled the Battle of Poltava and stated that during the war with Sweden, Peter I also withdrew troops, and then won.
The latest from Silicon Curtain Podcast
Jonathan interview Prof Dina Khapaeva on Putin’s revival of myths from Russia’s past.
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