A nation must think before it acts.
January 28, 2020
Post by Anna Jantzen
Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik News, while not always entirely uniform in characterizing President Trump and other 2020 presidential candidates, are remarkably consistent in their categorical denial of Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Russian state-sponsored media feeds these denials to targeted audiences through a variety of narratives seeking to convince or, in many cases, confuse audiences about the facts and assertions of Russian attribution in electoral interference.
This active and deliberate dissemination of falsehoods to further the Kremlin’s interests is entirely consistent with, even characteristic of, Vladimir Putin’s politics. The disinformation war surrounding the 2014 Ukraine crisis is one well-documented example. Such manipulation is also consistent with the time-honored Soviet practice of institutionalized political warfare, or “active measures,” an integral part of which has, since 1917, been disinformation. Though the USSR collapsed in 1991, Putin, once and always a KGB man, has preserved these tactics, updated them for the digital age, and secured their survival well into the 21st century.
In dismissing the assertion that Russian meddling occurred in 2016, state-sponsored media outlets employ various rhetorical approaches, usually aligning with four basic narratives:
Thus far, it appears that the Kremlin’s rhetorical lines on this front have been quite successful. What do these methods of denial mean leading into the 2020 election? Surely, sowing seeds of doubt about Russian election manipulation not only undermines efforts to counteract it, but clears the way for the Kremlin to undertake potentially similar disinformation campaigns leading up to November 3, 2020.