They’re Hacking the Elections! Svoboda Radio Spreads Propaganda in Run-Up to March 18

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- We've already tried speaking about somebody trying to interfere with our upcoming elections on March 18. In some Russian cities, these leaflets were spread on the streets. Nothing special at first sight. They are allegedly written by Ella Panfilova, the head of the Central Election Commission, agitating people to come to the elections on March 18. So far it's fine. But then, they suggest only one candidate: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. The CES has already commented on the situation. They said it's a lie. Friends, be vigilant: the CES has nothing to do with these leaflets.

- Who's responsible then? I hope we'll find out. But, if they are some foreign powers that are frequently mentioned in the Federation Council is still unclear. Among those who interfere with our elections, senator Klimov named such media platforms as Radio Svoboda, its subsidiaries, and Voice of America. We assessed their opinion on our elections and will demonstrate it right now. Their point of view is biased and straightforward. Let's have a look.

 

"In what case should we boycott the elections? “On March 18, 2018, our yards are going to be crowded with mysterious singing and dancing people. Curious citizens are going to swarm around them and at exactly 8 a.m. they'll start dancing towards the ballot stations. Upon reaching the ballot stations, the groups will first dance to the registration table and gradually reach the voting booths where they'll vote for Putin without ceasing to dance”. It's important to remember that even if the plan fails our government always has a backup plan — the same approach they used during the renovation project: the votes of all those who abstain will be cast for Putin".

"Vladimir Putin, your term is over
and your approach is obsolete.
Just stand up and disappear quietly.
Our future leader is Alexey Navalny.
Leave with dignity like Tsar Boris did -
proudly and gracefully without being rude.
Volodya, please leave, don't reduce us
to fighting our own brethren".

- And so on and so forth. The Federation Council has created a special commission to counteract external interference. They are agitating the best they can, Mr. Zhirinovsky. The correspondent of Voice of America perhaps thinks she's funny. They're agitating, not for you, but for their single candidate. How can one fight this agitation?

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, LDPR Leader: We must understand that there will be no end to their agitation. Vote for this one, vote for that. On March 18, everyone must come and vote for me. Pure, calm, patriotic. All dirt will run off.

- Of course. Sure, what else would you say?

- It's just the beginning. It'll get worse in early March. It'll be horrible. They might begin even sooner. They want to cause panic to fool the people. They've already paid those drunks and mad fools to push their agenda. They'll spend billions on interfering with the elections. Billions! To create chaos and discourage us from voting. Well, we're used to it. Our citizens will still make the right choice. In any case, the name of the future president is Vladimir.

- Sure.

- Just a moment, please. What's interesting and important here is the fact that even serious American analysts, those numerous centers, claim that there's no way for them to interfere. But the special budgets are still allocated, as the Federation Council reports, and they're still interfering. What are they trying to accomplish? If I can't have it, neither can you?

Dmitriy Evstafyev, political analyst: First, let's split these informational manipulations into the ones intended for the Western audience…

- Well, the Russian ones are intended for us.

- Yeah, sure. The Russian ones are for us. I'd like to point out the fact that their main goal is to turn our elections into a joke. Look at the stylistics of this video and its hosts. They are trying to make the elections look comical and insignificant. The Western internal and external propaganda in the Russian language is aimed at sabotaging the international legitimacy of our elections and the government that will form afterward. From the standpoint of political strategy and serious influence, it's a bad thing. That's why there's no agenda. Turning the elections into a joke is effectively influencing a certain part of the audience. Especially if it gets translated into English and spread among the Western audience. In this sense, it's a threat to consider.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky: Wait! We're to blame as well. The list of our candidates includes an office party entertainer, a champagne pourer, and a strawberry picker. It's an unprecedented case. A governor, a minister, a senator, or an MP could run for president. And we have candidates who have no clue what the executive branch of government is.

- But you're running as well.

- Yeah, but I have a clue. And, say, our President. And a couple of others.

- And that's enough.

- Yeah, that's probably enough.

- Sure, that's enough.

Igor Morozov, member of Federation Council: I'd like to say that I'm looking at our colleague at Dmitriy.

- That's true, he was agitating there.

- But you didn't say that Russia was toxic, right?

- No, I didn't.

- Then, why did they write it?

Dmitry Nekrasov: We were discussing the economy, I'm not sure why it says "toxic".

- An evident manipulation.

Igor Morozov, member of Federation Council: These are your German headlines! Whatever they show us, like the video we've just watched — there'll be plenty of these videos. Recently, a lot of NGOs were founded in the regions. Working with the regions was the dominating tendency. It's basically what the Americans did in Ukraine. We were working with the elite, they were working with the people.

Dmitry Nekrasov: Good job!

- Sure, good job.

- And their approach was more effective.

- Listen, we've learned to counteract internal interference. That's why what those two clowns are playing right now won't be accepted by our people because they repeat the same thesis that Joe Biden once used during his meeting with Putin. He also tried to express the American point of view, as if Putin cared. And after the events of the recent years, it's absolutely out of question. We all understand that Americans are playing their game with the help of their numerous satellite structures. That's why these 90 days will be the toughest.

Why are they important for us? We don't want anyone to alter the mindset of our people. We're all literate and smart people. Our whole country saw Putin lead our country out of the financial crisis. It was tough. Americans tried as hard as they could to prolong the process. The 2014 Olympics helped Putin show the greatness of our country. Meanwhile, what were they doing in Ukraine? We showed that our society was democratic and civilized that loves peace. We're ready to welcome everyone and show how friendly we are... How hospitable we are.

Meanwhile, they were orchestrating a coup knowing that we simply weren't able to help our brethren at the moment. They reduced Ukraine to nothing both economically and socially. Today, 90 days remain and look, Americans are beginning with these videos which they financed and whose number will only increase. So we must understand who we're voting for. Yes, we have Mr. Zhirinovsky. But there's also a person who picked up an unbearable burden by deciding to help our brethren in Crimea, and then in Donbass to prevent genocide. And he saved millions of Russian people that were living in Ukraine.

- Mr. Nekrasov, could you comment on that? You're familiar with the mentioned media platforms and probably have some experience. Mr. Morozov has mentioned the American money. Not to make his statement look like propaganda. We're talking about the media that were declared foreign agents and are directly financed by the US.

Igor Morozov: They even had a line in their budget for the "democratization" of Russia".

- It's still unclear why they cut the financing during our elections.

Dmitry Nekrasov, political analyst: It's clear that the West doesn’t have leverage over the outcome of our elections. They regularly allocate budgets. There's no "election special." They have a lot of influence agents, starting with the media and ending with various funds that are regularly financed. I personally don't think there were some special allocations for the elections. The task defies common sense.

- Why do they need influence agents who don't exert actual influence?

- It's regular influence. They are conducting regular "democratization" measures.

- They've always been doing it.

- Recently, they've started doing it more frequently. The US has been gradually creating certain structures around the world. And it has a logical explanation: a true democracy, which we are not, is usually a strategic ally of the US. They have been telling it at all open and hushed meetings.

- Is the US a true democracy?

- That's tough. But, they're much more democratic than we are. There is no "true" democracy".

- We're not truly democratic because there's no such thing.

- But they're much more democratic than we are. We are free to call ourselves peaceful and democratic. Even North Korea does. But the world thinks otherwise.

- Is the US peaceful?

- The US has a lot of issues as well.

- Why are they…

- I don't support boycotting the elections.

- Who is your candidate?

- I will vote for Yavlinsky, and I think everyone should come and vote.

Igor Morozov: But we've got Putin.

- Yeah, I get it, you have Putin. I realize how the elections will end. The West doesn't try to sabotage them because we've sabotaged them ourselves. The West won't take the outcome seriously anyway. We must understand that. It's clear that nobody takes them seriously.

- Please, could you wait a second? There are certain aspects of the elections that need to be addressed right after the commercial break.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky: The last short pause.

- The last one before evacuating says Mr. Zhirinovsky suggesting we listen to an expert from Ukraine. Of course, there will be no evacuation. As Mr. Zhirinovsky said, a Vladimir will win. We'll discuss it after the pause.

- The elections will decide the winner.

We have a little time to find out why the budget of the foreign agents was cut. The main issue the Russian Federation Council has with those media platforms, mostly American, is that they suggest boycotting our elections and are trying to make them illegitimate. Have you come to this conclusion?

Sergey Stankevich, Partiya Rosta: No, that's not my conclusion. I believe there's no chance to influence our elections externally. It's our internal affair. And I want this affair to be special this year. In the previous century, there was a slogan: "Vote with your heart". It's not applicable today. "Esteemed Russian voters, vote with reason, and not your heart".

- Why do we need a slogan if they can't influence anything?

- Well, there are some budgets that were allocated. There are professionals that work in this sphere and there's some target audience. But, the audience is too small to influence the outcome. Regarding the elections, there's an illusion that we're electing exclusively our Head of State. That's it. Actually, during the elections we're not just voting for the Head of State. Directly, yes. But indirectly we're solving two key issues. We can exert indirect influence on the composition of the future government and its program.

If some ideas are going to be supported during the election campaign, if some people who express these ideas are going to be supported during the elections, then we will influence the composition of the government and its program. We have only one issue: economic stagnation that's causing the increasing poverty. And the only one who can resolve this issue is Boris Titov and his party.

- Oh, I just wanted to say that you've modestly omitted the name of your candidate. The agitation has begun.

It's important that we've pointed out that the funds have decreased although it's clear that it's not the full sum that the Voice of America and Radio Svoboda are getting. But how are they going to exert influence? Because they're obviously trying to.

Dmitriy Evstafyev: First, let's go back to 2016 and 2017. The US was actively discussing how ineffective their propaganda is. The ineffective tools received an evidently smaller budget. The money goes to the web expert communities and I'm sure…

- Are they ineffective?

- They are not influencing their target audience effectively. And I'm sure, that the majority of the sum allocated for online propaganda is not shown in the graph, I guarantee it.

- They won't be allocated by BBG.

- And the last thing I'd like to say. The most dangerous thing is that their propaganda might help them manipulate our youth including the young people who are not allowed to vote yet. It's really dangerous. And if we look at the way the American propaganda videos are structured and their propaganda model, in general, we'll see that they target our youth.

- The duck has been brought to the CES.

- They're not targeting these elections. They are targeting the next elections.

- The legitimacy of the Russian elections could be questioned because of Crimea. And I'm not saying that because I'm Ukrainian. The expert community in Europe and the US claims that the legitimacy could be questioned. Mr. Zhirinovsky, I ask all candidates, including you: you know that there are approximately 20 million Russians affiliated with Ukraine, either born there or something else. There are Russian citizens in Ukraine. What can you give them? How are you planning to resolve the Ukrainian crisis peacefully? If you have one, of course.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky: I have only one plan Lugansk and Donbass must become a part of Russia. Not enough. Novorossiya. Not enough. The whole Ukraine. Negotiations won't lead to anything. The country is led by an aggressive gang. They need a war. They have the money for it. The West needs a war, at our cost, between Russia and Ukraine, they're not going to fight. They want to make us fight once again.