VaccinesRussian Anti-Vaccine Disinformation Campaign Backfires

By Jamie Dettmer

Published 18 November 2021

For more than a year, Russian-aligned troll factories overseeing thousands of social media accounts have been spreading anti-vaccine messages in an aggressive campaign to spread conspiracy theories and cast doubt on Western coronavirus vaccines. But the year-long offensive appears to have backfired. Russian officials now worry that the anti-vaccine skepticism encouraged by the troll factories has spilled over and is partly responsible for the high level of vaccine hesitancy among Russians.

For more than a year, Russian-aligned troll factories overseeing thousands of social media accounts have been accused by Western countries and disinformation experts of spreading anti-vaccine messages in an aggressive campaign to spread conspiracy theories and cast doubt on Western coronavirus vaccines.

But the year-long offensive appears to have backfired.

Russian officials now worry that the anti-vaccine skepticism encouraged by the troll factories has spilled over and is partly responsible for the high level of vaccine hesitancy among Russians. Only 35% of the country’s population is fully vaccinated, despite the wide availability of the country’s home-grown Sputnik vaccine. Despite surging cases the uptake remains sluggish.

Social network analysis company Graphika reported last month how Russia-aligned troll factories have recently been focusing on mandatory vaccination campaigns in the West seeking to undermine the effort to cajole more people to get jabbed. The U.S. Department of State last year started to warn that Russia-based propagandists were using social media platforms to spread conspiracy theories and to promote doubts around vaccinations.

But anti-vaccination videos and postings on the Internet are attracting high traffic in Russia, too, with tens of thousands of views. Mistrust of vaccines is pervasive in Russia. A survey conducted earlier this month by the Levada Center, a leading pollster, found 45% of Russians are not prepared to get inoculated. And the pollster found 50% are not afraid of contracting the virus, although it did find the fear of contracting the virus increased from 43% in August to 48% now.

Infections Rising
Russian health authorities have been reporting recently around 40,000 new coronavirus cases a day, despite a partial week-long shutdown earlier this month that required Russians to take paid leave in a bid to curb the spread of the virus. Russia’s low vaccination rate is especially dismaying considering that the country became the first in the world to register a COVID-19 vaccine with Russian health authorities approving Sputnik V, which was named for the satellite from half a century ago, in August last year.

While neighboring countries have sometimes scrambled to meet vaccine demand, especially earlier this year, Russia has been confronted with quite the opposite dilemma: plenty of vaccine supplies but resistance from a vaccine-skeptical population.