The Russia connectionRussia’s Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem

Published 10 September 2020

Last month, the U.S. Department of State’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) issued an important report – Pillars of Russia’s Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem – describing in detail the multifaceted, systemic, sustained, and effective disinformation and propaganda campaign which Russia has been conducting against the West for nearly a decade. The many different elements of this campaign are well coordinated and synchronized for maximum effect – so much so, that the GEC rightly calls it an “ecosystem” of disinformation and propaganda.

The U.S. Department of State’s Global Engagement Center(GEC) was created, in the words of the State Department, “To direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate efforts of the Federal Government to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations.”

Last month, the GEC issued an important report – Pillars of Russia’s Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem– describing in detail the multifaceted, systemic, sustained, and effective disinformation and propaganda campaign which Russia has been conducting against the West for nearly a decade. The many different elements of this campaign are well coordinated and synchronized for maximum effect – so much so, that the GEC rightly calls it an “ecosystem” of disinformation and propaganda.

Lea Gabrielle, Special Envoy and Coordinator of the Global Engagement Center, spoke at a press conferenceon the release of the report. Here are excerpts from her introductory remarks and responses to a few of the questions:

Lea Gabrielle: The Global Engagement Center’s Special Report on Russia’s Pillars of Russia’s Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystemprovides the first-ever comprehensive analysis of Russia’s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem.

With the release of this report, the Global Engagement Center here at the Department of State is fulfilling its congressional mandate and advancing this administration and Congress’s goal of countering foreign disinformation and propaganda that’s aimed at the United States and its allies and partners.

The GEC, the department, and the entire U.S. Government is engaged in an intensive effort to build global resiliency against Russia’s disinformation tactics.

And we’re sharing this full report publicly. It can be found on the Global Engagement Center page on state.gov.

Russia is playing a significant role in creating and spreading disinformation and propaganda around many topics.

For example, recently, you may have seen in the media that Russia is using proxy sites to disseminate disinformation specifically about COVID.

The GEC has found this to be true.

But COVID-19 is not the only topic that Russia is spreading false information about. Proxy sites are only part of a much larger ecosystem of disinformation.

So, our report draws on publicly available information to detail for the international public what we view as the five pillars of Russian disinformation.