XClose

UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES)

Home
Menu

CANCELLED: When propaganda fails: COVID-19 dissidents and the Kremlin's war in Ukraine

23 October 2024, 4:00 pm–6:00 pm

Book cover for 'Fortress Russia'

A SSEES Culture and Society in Modern Russia Seminar with Dr Ilya Yablokov. Please note this event will be delivered in Russian.

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

SSEES

Location

Room 347
UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies
16 Taviton street
London
WC1H 0BW

This event has unfortunately been cancelled.

The Putin regime has been able to solve many problems through intimidation, corruption, and massive propaganda, but in 2020 it faced a challenge that was stronger than any of these tools: the COVID-19 pandemic, which had disastrous consequences for Russia due to government inaction and a shortage of medical specialists.

The Kremlin's handling of COVID-19 is a story of state disinformation and a lesson that any propaganda has its limits. First, the Kremlin media mocked the global pandemic. Then the Kremlin tried to hide the true number of victims by fudging official statistics. Eventually, Kremlin officials claimed to have invented the first vaccine against the coronavirus and urged Russians to get vaccinated. However, mass vaccination faced unprecedented popular resistance, which undermined the regime's popularity and exposed the shortcomings of its propaganda.

This lecture examines an example of anti-vaccine activism, the COVID-19 Resistance Telegram channel, one of the largest grassroots online communities during this period. I analyse the posts, narratives and sentiments of Russian sceptics about COVID-19 between March 2021 and June 2022. I argue that massive distrust of the government's vaccination programme caused significant resistance to mandatory vaccination to emerge, expressed through anti-Kremlin conspiracy theories. The war in Ukraine, in turn, led to the spread of conspiracy theories about COVID-19, which were used to justify the invasion and increase support for the Kremlin. An analysis of the Telegram feed shows that these actions had a very limited impact.

Когда пропаганда терпит неудачу: COVID-19-диссиденты и война Кремля в Украине

Режим Путина смог решить многие проблемы с помощью запугивания, коррупции и масштабной пропаганды, однако в 2020 году он столкнулся с проблемой, которая оказалась сильнее любых из этих инструментов: пандемией COVID-19, имевшей катастрофические последствия для России из-за бездействия властей и нехватки медицинских специалистов.

Отношение Кремля к COVID-19 — это история о государственной дезинформации и урок о том, что у любой пропаганды есть свои пределы. Сначала кремлевские СМИ насмехались над глобальной пандемией. Затем Кремль попытался скрыть истинное число жертв, подделав официальные статистические данные. В итоге кремлевские чиновники заявили, что изобрели первую вакцину от коронавируса и призвали россиян сделать прививку. Однако массовая вакцинация столкнулась с беспрецедентным народным сопротивлением, что подорвало популярность режима и обнажило недостатки его пропаганды.

В этой лекции рассматривается пример антиковидного активизма - телеграм-канал «Сопротивление COVID-19», одно из крупнейших grassroots онлайн-сообществ в этот период. Я анализирую посты, нарративы и настроения российских скептиков по поводу COVID-19 в период с марта 2021 по июнь 2022 года. Я утверждаю, что массовое недоверие к программе вакцинации правительства вызвало появление значительного сопротивления обязательной вакцинации, которое выражалось в анти-кремлевских теории заговора. Война в Украине, в свою очередь, привела к распространению теорий заговора о COVID-19, которые использовались для оправдания вторжения и увеличения поддержки Кремля. Анализ телеграм-канала показывает, что эти действия оказали очень ограниченное влияние.

About the Speaker

Ilya Yablokov

Ilya Yablokov
The spheres of Dr Yablokov’ research interests are the state disinformation strategies in Central and Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on the Russian government, as well as the sociology of news production in Russia. As Lecturer in Digital Journalism and Disinformation and founder of the University of Sheffield’s disinformation cluster Dr Yablokov’s studies how the Kremlin uses mis/disinformation and conspiracy theories to shape social cohesion and influence public opinion across Russia and beyond. After the war in Ukraine started, Dr Yablokov spent months exploring the ways of support that are required by Russian media professionals. Currently, Ilya works on the book 'Russian Media Mavericks: Feeding the Fire of Authoritarianism’ (with Elisabeth Schimpfossl) about the history of Russian media from 1987 up until Putin’s war in Ukraine. Together, Dr Yabloklov a is working on the monograph ' that will be published by Hurst publishers.

Ilya’s most recent monograph Russia Today and Conspiracy Theories: People, Power, Politics on RT (with Precious Chatterje-Doody) explores how Russian international broadcaster uses traditional and new media environments to spread disinformation on subnational, national and international levels. This work was spawned by Ilya’s previous research into conspiracy theories in Russia. His monograph Fortress Russia: conspiracy theories in the post-Soviet world (Polity 2018) studied how political elites in post-Soviet Russia use conspiracy theories for political purposes and to boost social cohesion under Vladimir Putin. Its Russian version had three editions and was included in a longlist of best non-fiction books of 2020.

As a principal investigator of the British Academy research grant entitled 'Self-censorship in post-Socialist countries' (2017-2019, with Elisabeth Schimpfossl) Ilya studied practices of self-censorship in the Russian media and explored the political, economic and cultural factors influencing the specifics of self-censorship in the post-socialist states of Russia, Hungary and Latvia. In collaboration with colleagues from UK, Denmark, Hungary and Latvia the project looked at informal practices that define the work of newsrooms across the post-socialist world. 

Ilya has published research in leading academic journals in the field of media and Russian studies, including JournalismEuropean Journal of CommunicationRussian ReviewPoliticsParticipations and Democratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization.

Ilya’s media appearances include CNN, BBC World ServiceThe New York TimesThe Washington PostForbesPoliticoEurozineAl-JazeeraMeduzaOpen Democracy RussiaThe Moscow Times and The Conversation.