Kremlin uses government help to spread Russian war propaganda in Hungary?

Vladimir Putin
Photo: MTI/EPA/Pool/Szputnyik

With the help of the Hungarian government, the Kremlin is trying to make people believe fake news about the Russian-Ukrainian war.

According to Telex, social platforms, especially Facebook, play a major role in this regard. One of the goals of the Russian leadership at the moment is to make people believe that Russia is not solely to blame for the war in Ukraine. This, of course, is simply not true:

Russia attacked its neighbour unilaterally because Vladimir Putin’s declared goal was to resurrect the former Soviet empire, while Ukraine saw its future in the European Union and NATO,

as we can read on Political Capital, a research institute’s website.

The research institute has gathered facts and examples that make it clear that the Russian disinformation campaign has reached brutal proportions in the Hungarian online space.

Disinformation campaign

Some of the biggest – and most surprising – lies that are being spread rapidly and are repeated infinitely on social media are the following:

  • The Ukrainian President of Jewish origin, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is, in fact, a Nazi.
  • After Maidan, genocide took place in Ukraine.
  • Ukraine wants nuclear weapons.

Telex’s fact-checker writings show that while it is not easy for minorities in eastern Ukraine, there is no genocide going on there, nor could Ukraine have nuclear weapons even if it wanted them.

So, the Russian disinformation campaign is all about misleading and making Russia look like a victim and justifying launching a war against an independent country – a war that has claimed civilian lives.

The Hungarian government’s help

Government-affiliated media outlets are greatly assisting this campaign: for example, Balázs Bende, the chief foreign policy editor of the public media, told M1 that three-quarters of the Russian population support Vladimir Putin’s war.

As we can read in Telex’s article, the 75% support in Russia for Putin’s war is claimed by the public media on the basis of a “poll conducted a few months ago”, but there is no reference, no source, and no one knows who made it.

Political Capital also points out that it is a fact that there is real, objective reporting in the government media. In addition, the debunking of pro-Russian counterfactuals and disinformation is left to “experts” who are popular among the Fidesz public. Such persons are Georg Spöttle and Zoltán Lomnici Jr.

The extent to which the narrative of Russian trolls, pro-Russian people, and the government converge is best illustrated by the fact that one of the commentator profiles examined by the research institute added to the narrative that Péter Márky-Zay and the opposition would send soldiers to Ukraine.

This is a straight-up lie, but Fidesz is repeating it on every platform possible, and it is quite interesting that the likely pseudo-profile is defending both Russian and Fidesz’s views.

Source: Telex, Political Capital

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