BTRP Articles

Aug. 14, 2024

How the U.S. Can Counter Disinformation From Russia and China

Disinformation campaigns can be a powerful tool to shape beliefs on matters of great geopolitical importance. Bad actors can deploy them against rivals to sow costly discord, create political uncertainty, and deepen divides within a community. Monitoring and “pre-bunking” even the most obscure claims is important because, if left unaddressed, their damage can be hard to undo, and in some cases, those false narratives can presage a real-life attack.

June 7, 2024

Russia Spreads Disinformation to Cover Up Its Use of Chemical Weapons in Ukraine

In May 2024, the United States imposed new sanctions on three Russian government entities and four Russian companies in response to its full-scale war and use of chemical weapons against Ukraine. The United States determined Russia used the chemical weapon chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops and riot control agents (RCA) as a method of warfare in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

March 12, 2024

The Kremlin’s Efforts to Spread Deadly Disinformation in Africa

In addition to its own staff, African Initiative recruits African journalists, bloggers, and members of local publics to support and amplify the organization’s work of bolstering Russia’s image and denigrating that of other countries. One of African Initiative’s first major campaigns is to target U.S. and Western health initiatives in Africa with dangerous health-related disinformation. The campaign seeks to undermine U.S.-funded public health projects across Africa beginning with disinformation regarding an outbreak of a mosquito-borne viral disease. From there, conspiracies will be spread about Western pharmaceutical corporations, health-focused philanthropic efforts, and the spread of disease in West and East Africa.

March 8, 2024

Disarming Disinformation: Our Shared Responsibility

“There is truth and there are lies. Lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and responsibility, as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders – leaders who have pledged to honor our Constitution and protect our nation — to defend the truth and to defeat the lies.” JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Jan. 25, 2024

Information Pollution and What It Means for Arms Control

Over the past decade, Russia has stepped up its disinformation campaigns to erode trust in arms control across the nuclear, chemical, and biological domains. The new era of rapidly disseminated disinformation poses significant challenges to U.S. national security and, more specifically, to arms control verification and compliance.

Oct. 19, 2023

Exporting Pro-Kremlin Disinformation: The Case of Nova Resistência in Brazil

New Resistance is a quasi-paramilitary neo-fascist organization operating in South America, Europe, and North America with deep connections to entities and individuals within Russia’s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem. Along with the English-language propaganda website Fort Russ News (FRN) and the authoritarian pseudo-think tank Center for Syncretic Studies (CSS) – both dormant since February 2022 – New Resistance was formed by a pro-Kremlin disinformation and propaganda network and was inspired by Aleksandr Dugin, a U.S.-sanctioned Russian “philosopher” and the principal proponent of an anti-Western, Russia-led Eurasian imperialist movement.

May 23, 2023

Protecting the Alliance Against the Threat of Cognitive Warfare

Cognitive Warfare includes activities conducted in synchronization with other Instruments of Power, to affect attitudes and behaviours, by influencing, protecting, or disrupting individual, group, or population level cognition, to gain an advantage over an adversary. Designed to modify perceptions of reality, whole-of-society manipulation has become a new norm, with human cognition shaping to be a critical realm of warfare.

Nov. 9, 2022

The Kremlin’s Allegations of Chemical and Biological Weapons Laboratories in Ukraine

The Kremlin is intentionally spreading outright lies that the United States and Ukraine are conducting chemical and biological weapons activities in Ukraine. We have also seen PRC officials echo these conspiracy theories. This Russian disinformation is total nonsense and not the first time Russia has invented such false claims against another country. Also, these claims have been debunked conclusively and repeatedly over many years.

Nov. 3, 2022

U.N. Security Council rejects Russia's call to probe debunked U.S.-Ukraine biological weapons claims

The U.N.'s 15-nation Security Council voted down on Wednesday a proposal by Russia to create a commission to investigate Moscow's unsubstantiated claims of a joint U.S.-Ukrainian "military biological" program. Russia has leveled allegations since March that programs in Ukraine sponsored by the U.S. Defense Department were in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention, an international law regulating weaponized toxins.

Nov. 2, 2022

Security Council Rejects Text to Investigate Complaint Concerning Non-Compliance of Biological Weapons Convention by Ukraine, United States

The Security Council today failed to adopt a resolution put forth by the Russian Federation to set up a commission consisting of all members of the Council to investigate its complaint about the non-compliance by the United States and Ukraine with their obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention.