TWO FAKES: PUTIN’S BLOODY BURGER, DUTCH CHEESE AND REFUGEES

Illustrated Guide to Fakes and Propaganda Strategies

This new installment on the Russian propaganda fakes covers two latest examples of political technology work normalizing the criminals in power and creating the narrative of fear and intimidation.

• Multiple Russian state TV stations and mass media sources reported a fake story about a special “Putin Birthday Burger” served in a NY restaurant as a special tribute to Russia and the Russian leader
• Russian state TV channel invited Amsterdam residents to sample Russian cheese and find it superior to the Dutch cheese and report the violent acts performed by the Muslim refugees in Holland.

Here is the scheme behind the propaganda strategies:

1. A false claim/story is produced.
2. It is circulated in social media. Russian bots and trolls push hashtags/topic.
3. Mainstream media reports the story. It is echoed by many outlets.
4. A public discussion ensues. Experts, prominent public figures, laymen join in with opinions, repeating the story until it becomes a common knowledge.
5. After a certain number of repetition, the negative (or positive) emotional response is formed.
6. The individuals or groups, targeted by the propagandist, are compromised or glorified.
7. Even if/when the fake is debunked, the negative/positive associations stay. It is an irrational reaction.

1. PUTIN BURGER IN MANHATTAN

Goal: to normalize Putin’s crimes and glorify the murderous dictator by faking respect and recognition on a global scale.

CLAIM

As reported by Independent, Russian state-owned media published claims that a Mexican restaurant across the street from Madison Square Garden, Manhattan had sold a burger special named after Vladimir Putin on his birthday, October 7.

“Russian state-owned media claimed in a video last week that a waitress had told them that the restaurant had put together a five-patty burger that weighed about “1,952 grammes” — a reference to the year Mr Putin was born — to mark his 65th birthday on Saturday. The video segment, which was clearly filmed at least in part in the restaurant, shows a waitress delivering a mammoth burger to a customer and talking about how it’s made,” reports Independent.

“We believe that Vladimir Vladimirovich is an outstanding politician and a historical figure,” one barmaid — identified as both Tamara and Tatiana in Russian news outlets — said in a video produced by a Russian television channel. “We decided to devote one day a year to [Putin],” said another barmaid, identified as Darya in the video, writes Independent.

MYTH-MAKING VS. FACTS

“Lucy’s Cantina Royale was subject of a hoax involving Vladimir Putin’s birthday. Our restaurant has never celebrated Vladimir Putin’s birthday in any way, shape, or form, and has never offered a ‘Putin Burger’,” a statement provided by manager Tim Ryan to The Independent reads.“Lucy’s completely disavows the statements made in the video, which are false. The employees responsible for this hoax have been suspended pending investigation.”

REPETITION

According to a Russian-language Medium publication, ten Russian state channels used the video produced by Ruptly, an affiliate of RT (former Russia Today.) The video has since then disappeared from YouTube.

Left: the list of Russian media sources listing the Putin Burger special in NY. Right: The removed video.

Here is the saved copy of the original video by Alexey Kovalev, a Russian journalist who wrote an excellent article following the misadventures of the non-existent burger. Note the metric system — oops!

The same media sources also reported Putin’s birthday celebration around the globe.

Top left: “Putin and Puppy” in gold, St. Petersbrug, Russia. Top center and right: Putin and doves in Berlin. Bottom left: Paris. Bottom center: Barcelona. Bottom right: Syria.

MYTH-MAKING VS. FACTS

Nobody verified the stories above but here are the photos from the protests against Putin in Russia on his birthday.

Left: A protester is detained on October 7, Independent. Center, right: Protesters in Moscow and St. Petersburg on Putin’s birthday. “Thief, murder” reads the shirt of the man in the center. AP/Dmitry Lovetsky.

Left: Thousands demanded that Putin quit on October 7. Center: Moscow, October 7. The poster reads: For KGBs provocations. Right: St. Petersburg, opposition rally.

Here are some facts about Putin’s regimes victims:

Top and Bottom Right: Journalists and Putin’s opponents, killed under Putin’s regime. Left: “Anastasia Baburova, seen in framed photo, was shot dead along with human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, in Sevastopol, Ukraine, Jan. 26, 2009. (AP) Markelov was a human rights lawyer known for representing Chechen civilians in human rights cases again the Russian military. He also represented journalists who found themselves in legal trouble after writing articles critical of Putin, including Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya, who was slain in 2006. Markelov was shot by a masked gunman near the Kremlin. Baburova, also a journalist from Novaya Gazeta, was fatally shot as she tried to help him. Russian authorities said a neo-Nazi group was behind the killings, and two members were convicted of the deaths.“ ”From Washington Post.

2. DUTCH CHEESE, RUSSIAN CHEESE AND MUSLIM REFUGEES IN AMSTERDAM

Goal: to create the atmosphere of fear and panic; depict Muslim refugees as an existential threat to the Western community. Create a myth of Russian dairy industry.

CLAIM

On October 3, 2017, a disturbing casting call in Russian appeared in Russian Amsterdam, FB public group.

Screenshot from the Russian Amsterdam FB page. The translation is below.

“Pavel Morozov:* Greetings, dear compatriots! NTV channel** is organizing a business trip to the Netherlands to shoot two reports:

the crisis of immigrants in Europe

“import substitution”

On the subject of migrants, we are looking for Russians in Amsterdam to share a story about the violence of immigrants. Perhaps, someone owns a business that immigrants are messing with; or perhaps, they are stealing something. Or, for example, someone was attacked by immigrants. We know that in Holland everything is pretty calm in this regard, but nevertheless, different incidents happen.

On the subject of “import substitution.” We are going to bring Russian cheeses to Holland, give samples to the local Dutch people and compare them with Dutch cheeses.…If you think you could help — please PM.”

MYTH-MAKING VS. FACTS

Apart from the obvious attempt to falsify the narrative of violent Muslim immigrants in Holland, I’d like to draw your attention to several things that will be obscured from the Western audience:

1. *“Pavel Morozov” (also, diminutive, Pavlik) is a name immediately recognized by any Russian-speaker as a symbol of the Soviet propaganda and myth-making. A story of a 13-year-old boy denouncing his father to the communist authorities during Stalin’s Purges (1932) was fabricated and widely circulated in the Soviet Union. Glorified by authorities, the name became a symbol of a betrayal. First and foremost, this has to be a made-up name, not a given name as it is virtually impossible any sane parent naming his/her child after a parent-murderer. To make the connection stronger, the producer in question uses “Pavlik Morozov” for his Twitter handle. A quick search of social media shows that “Pavel Morozov” appears in NTV channel group photos but is not listed on the website.
2. **NTV channel’s history is critical to understanding Putin’s regime. Putin’s first move as the President in 2000 was crashing NTV and establishing the government control over it. Briefly:

• In 1993, an oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky co-founded NTV. The channel set high professional standards, broadcasting live coverage and analysis of current events and by 1999 the audience achieved 102 million.
• During parliamentary elections in 1999 and presidential elections in 2000, NTV did not support Putin and his political party.

Left: In the puppet show Kukly in the beginning of February 2000, the puppet of Putin acted as Little Zaches in a story based on E.T.A. Hoffmann’s “Little Zaches called Cinnabar”, in which blindness causes villagers mistake an evil gnome for a beautiful youth. This provoked a fierce reaction from Putin’s supporters. An unnamed top government official requested NTV to exclude the puppet of Putin from Kukly. Right: Apartment bombings in Moscow, in 1999. A number of bombings went all over the country before the elections. On 24 March 2000, two days before the presidential elections, NTV featured the Ryazan apartment bombing of Fall 1999 in the talk show Independent Investigation. One day before airing the show, the Kremlin warned the NTV managers that they “should consider themselves finished” if they would go ahead with the broadcast. (from Wikipedia)

• In May 2000, tax police, backed by officers from the general prosecutor’s office and the FSB, stormed the Moscow headquarters of NTV.
• In April 2001, Gazprom took over NTV. Within the next couple of years, two independent TV channels which absorbed the former NTV journalists, were also shut down. Putin arrested and exiled the oligarchs and shareholders of the NTV channel and appointed his classmates and friends to the managerial positions. (some facts from Wikipedia)

REPETITION

“Pavel Morozov” has been active on social media on behalf of NTV since at least 2014, posting quite remarkable messages around the world.

At the time the above-mentioned video appeared, many Western and Russian journalists debunked the myth of “an American fan sneaking into the changing room of Russian hockey team” past the Moscow security. We will not go into other equally absurd point of this story here, just point out a remarkable predilection of Muscovites to scatological matters.

MYTH-MAKING VS. FACTS

The claim of NTV being a “non-governmental TV channel” is disinformation:

• NTV is owned by Gazprom-media
• Gazprom-media is owned by Gazprombank, a state-owned Russian bank, sanctioned by the US.
• Gazprombank is owned by Gazprom, Russia’s largest company and the world’s biggest public energy supplier.
• Gazrpombank’s CEO and the Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom, Alexey Miller, is a longterm friend of Putin.

In August 1991, when Putin had just resigned from his KGB position after a military coup and became the Chairman of the Committee for External Relations of St.Petersburg’s City Hall, Miller worked as his deputy.

REPETITION

Morozov often places similar requests in the US (North Carolina, Alexandria, Virgina, etc) Italy, China, Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Columbia, Serbia, Chech Republic, Slovenia, Spain and many other countries.

SUMMARY

Russian propagandists and political technologists continue their work after the elections of 2016. The ultimate goal of combat propaganda is to confuse the masses.

Using common sense and simple debunking measures will help you to keep sanity and resist the engineered reality.

1. Check your sources.
2. Ask questions.

2. Think critically.

Read more about RUSSIAN CYBERWAR AND PROPAGANDA here.

RUSSIAN CYBERWAR AND PROPAGANDA

*All facts and photos are in public domain and available through Google. Links to the original sources are included.

** Click and hold the clapping hands on the left bottom corner so more Medium users can read it. The longer you hold it, the more claps the article gets and more people will be able to find out this article. Share on the social media: we need independent research.