Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty
Russia’s economy is struggling under the weight of Western sanctions and the situation is expected to deteriorate even further as time goes by. Instead of ceasing the bloody invasion of Ukraine to ease the burden of sanctions, the Kremlin’s top propagandists plot to undermine Western democracies and fuel separatist movements all over the world. They ponder how to “elect” Kremlin-friendly politicians abroad and to cause such internal turmoil in other countries that sanctions against Russia would become a luxury the West can no longer afford.
While the Kremlin’s disinformation apparatus is facing unprecedented resistance in the West, head of RT Margarita Simonyan admitted that her outlet’s operations in the West have not ceased—despite being blocked—but continue on a covert basis. Appearing on a state TV program The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov last week, Simonyan explained: “When they [Western governments] conducted carpet bombing against us and destroyed everything, denying us any access to disseminating information, we came to our senses and started to penetrate their defenses using partisan trails: under other names, with different people, in new ways. I won’t disclose the rest here.”
RT’s undercover endeavors are not motivated by the need to share information, but rather to further the Kremlin’s agenda by stirring up dissent in Western countries. RT’s guerilla information warfare is enhanced by the voices Russian state media openly amplifies, such as Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán, former U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Their actions and opinions are cherished in Moscow not solely for their contributions to spreading the misleading narratives championed by the Putin regime, but for the harm they cause to Western unity and strength.