Date of publication: 01 Apr 2022 • 37 minutes ago • 2 minutes reading • 74 Comments People dig a grave for the victims killed during the Ukraine-Russia conflict on a road in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, March 20, 2022 Photo by Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters
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OTAWA – Ukrainians collecting bodies of fallen soldiers and Russian anti-war protesters supporting “neo-Nazis and genocide” are just some of Russia’s online disinformation campaigns since launching its invasion of Ukraine.
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In a Twitter post Friday morning, the Communications Security Foundation (CSE) said it was sharing information from its top-secret reports about Russia’s latest disinformation campaigns to help protect Canadians who may fall victim to the country’s propaganda. “Since Russia’s brazen and unwarranted invasion of Ukraine, we have seen many Russian-backed online disinformation campaigns designed to support their actions,” CSE wrote on Twitter. The CSE said it had found evidence that Russia was promoting horrific and false stories by saying that Ukraine was “collecting the bodies of fallen soldiers, women and children” and then hid the data through mobile incinerators.
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“Russia has created and perpetuated false stories and narratives that falsely claim that only military targets were attacked and that civilian casualties in Ukraine were lower,” the CSE wrote. But Russia’s misinformation efforts have targeted not only Ukrainians but also its own people who do not support President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade its western neighbor. For weeks, thousands of Russians have defied their country’s draconian censorship laws to host daily anti-war protests across the country. Three weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, nearly 15,000 people were arrested for protesting and sometimes tortured, according to human rights groups. “We have seen Russian efforts to promote stories that falsely categorize Russian protesters and citizens who oppose the invasion as supporters of neo-Nazis and genocide,” the CSE warned on Friday.
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Canada’s spy services have repeatedly warned that Russia was one of the biggest supporters of cyber-threats against the country, with cyberattacks being our biggest strategic threat right now. The CSE and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) have been paying close attention to Russian-backed cyber threats since Putin decided to invade Ukraine, which means his country is likely to increase its cyber-activities, including cyber attacks and cyber-disinformation campaigns against hostile countries such as Canada. During a committee meeting earlier this week, CSIS Assistant Director Cherie Henderson described Russia as a “highly potential threat” known to be involved in disinformation campaigns to advance its own interests and prevent its opponents from West. “We also know that Russia is secretly gathering political, economic and military information on Canada through targeted, threatening activities in support of its own interests,” he added. During the same meeting, the head of the Canadian Center for CSE Cyber Security, Sami Khoury, warned lawmakers – and consequently Canadians – to be particularly tired of Russian-backed cyber threats. “I would suggest that in the current context we need to look at geopolitical tensions… and the Russian threat to cyberspace,” he said.
