Kallioniemi: Russia and Serbia use conspiracy theories for propaganda

Russia and Serbia use conspiracy theories to spread disinformation in the region, says Pekka Kallioniemi, author of the book Vatnik Soup: The Ultimate Guide to Russian Disinformation.

In an interview with The Geopost, Kallioniemi sheds light on Russia’s disinformation and its impact on Western democracies and the Balkan region.

He points out that Russia often recycles old narratives to influence public opinion, including conspiracy theories and propaganda related to the conflict in Ukraine. Kallioniemi also talks about how Serbia, through media such as RT Balkan and Sputnik Serbia, reproduces the same disinformation patterns in the region.

“Russia likes to recycle ideas, so they often talk about conspiracy theories, so for example, conspiracy theories related to COVID-19, they also often use oppression, that is, oppression of minorities. And of course Serbia aggressively recycles and reuses the same narratives in this region, so basically it’s a lot of old narratives that are just being slightly adapted to the Balkan context,” he says.

The main challenge, he underlines, is to stop disinformation before it spreads to a larger audience.

Fill interview:

THE GEOPOST:Thank you very much for this interview for The Geopost. Can you tell us about the book and what is the message?

Kallioniemi: So the book, Vatnik Soup. The Ultimate Guide to Russian Disinformation, is basically all the material that I have been writing in these last almost three years on Russian disinformation operations put in one cover, put in these covers. So basically what I tell in the book is how Russia operates in the information space online, especially social media, and then I introduce a large group of people who are involved in this and often they are also connected in these very complex networks.

THE GEOPOST:What are the narratives of disinformation which impact the westerns democracies, especially Finland?

Kallioniemi: So when we talk about Russia, they are often not that much new, they recycle old narratives quite often, so for example the neo-Nazis taking charge in Ukraine is a very classical one. But I mean, for the longest time they have been stating that claiming that the corruption problem in Ukraine is so severe that Ukraine is not worth supporting because that money just goes to the pockets of the rich people, the politicians and so on, which is of course a lie. But they keep using it because it’s working.

We can see it working very effectively in the United States, where people are already saying that okay, why are we sending money to corrupt Ukraine when we could use it in our own country. And this is a very common strategy, so basically claiming corruption where there is, I mean, it’s not an actual problem and in those areas where there is a problem it is being fought against.

THE GEOPOST:Do you have information about Balkan, what are the narratives spreading disinformation, because most of Russian media are in Belgrade still, like RT Balkan and Sputnik Serbia, so how do you see this media?

Kallioniemi:I think again we can state that Russia likes to recycle ideas, so they often talk about conspiracy theories, so for example, COVID-19 related conspiracy theories; they also often use oppression, so oppression of minorities. And of course Serbia aggressively recycles and kind of reuses these same narratives in this region, so it’s basically lots of old saying narratives that are just being maybe adjusted slightly to the context of the Balkans.

THE GEOPOST:And finally, what is your message for experts, researchers and journalists in Balkan, how to identify this problem?

Kallioniemi:I think in general identifying the narratives is not that difficult, but stopping them from spreading to the large audiences is the challenge. And this is because of the social media platforms, these big tech companies that usually prioritize engagement over safety. So they let these narratives spread because they are popular and when something is popular it keeps the people on these platforms. But I think in general for policymakers and politicians I would like to say that education is the key.

We have to focus on media literacy, on critical thinking and we have to integrate it into the education system so that in the future we will have this kind of defense, this mental defense, cognitive resilience that we can kind of “counter the bullshit” if I may use this word, so it comes more naturally.

THE GEOPOST:Thank you very much for this interview for The Geopost.

Kallioniemi:Thank you very much.

/The Geopost/