Behind the scenes of BRICS summit: guide for propagandists and large-scale bot campaign – ISW
The Kremlin is seeking to portray the BRICS summit in Kazan as a demonstration of strong international backing for Russia, particularly targeting its domestic audience.
Source: Institute for the Study of War (ISW)
Details: Meduza, a Latvia-based Russian media outlet, reported on 24 October that it had reviewed a directive issued by the Russian Presidential Administration, guiding state media and propagandists on the preferred narrative for covering the BRICS summit in Kazan.
The guide reportedly highlights three themes:
- Russian President Vladimir Putin is the "informal leader of the world majority";
- Western elites are "panicking";
- The West as a whole is "anxious".
The Kremlin is reported to have directed media outlets to highlight that the BRICS summit is drawing global attention and serves as proof that attempts to isolate Russia after its large-scale invasion of Ukraine have failed.
Meduza reported that Russian media had been instructed to emphasise how President Putin is forming "strategic ties that are not limited to one direction," contrasting this with what the Kremlin calls the West's "fleeting alliances" (NATO celebrated its 75th anniversary this year).
ISW highlights that Russian state media and propagandists have published articles addressing numerous topics outlined in the directive, often reproducing them nearly verbatim.
On 24 October, the Russian media outlet Verstka reported that pro-Russian bots on the VKontakte (VK) social media platform had generated over 10,000 comments about the BRICS summit within just two days, marking it as one of the Kremlin's largest bot campaigns in recent memory.
The bots propagated narratives suggesting that Russia is not internationally isolated, highlighting the growing influence of BRICS, claiming that anti-Russian sanctions are being relaxed, and asserting that Russian forces are making advances in Ukraine.
On 24 October, a Russian insider revealed that unnamed sources with ties to the Kremlin indicated that the BRICS nations largely do not endorse Russia's position on the war in Ukraine. This has compelled the Kremlin to push the issue to the back burner in order to achieve some "serious international association". The insider source claimed that numerous meetings during the summit discussed peace proposals from the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Brazil, which are favoured by Russia, but that these discussions "ultimately led to nothing".
As ISW assessed on 23 October, the adoption of the Kazan Declaration on the second day of the BRICS summit demonstrated that Russia has neither secured international support nor created the alternative security structure the Kremlin desires.
To quote the ISW’s Key Takeaways on 24 October:
- Russian President [leader] Vladimir Putin failed to deny the presence of North Korean military personnel in Russia on 24 October, amid official Ukrainian reports that the first North Korean military units arrived in Kursk Oblast on 23 October.
- [The self-proclaimed] Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko strongly hinted that Belarusian forces will not fight in Ukraine and appeared to question Russian President [leader] Vladimir Putin's likely efforts to introduce North Korean forces into Russia's war against Ukraine in the process.
- The Kremlin is reportedly attempting to portray the BRICS summit in Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan as evidence of widespread international support for Russia – especially to domestic audiences in Russia.
- Russian President [leader] Vladimir Putin attempted to project Russian confidence in the Russian military's ability to repel the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast at a press conference after the BRICS summit on 24 October.
- Ukrainian authorities are investigating another execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) by Russian forces in the Pokrovsk direction against the backdrop of Russian forces' increasingly frequent POW executions across the theatre.
- Ukrainian forces recently advanced in Kursk Oblast and near Toretsk and Pokrovsk.
- Russian forces recently advanced near Kreminna and Siversk.
- The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), Ministry of Defence (MoD), and Rosgvardia (Russian National Guard) reportedly each have their own Akhmat units that perform different functions in different sectors of the front and rear.
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