The US Deep State against Donald Trump. Russian Media Monitoring Report, July 15–21, 2024
On 21 July, US President Joe Biden announced his decision not to run in the next presidential election. This event became the basis for the spread of conspiracy theories about the Deep State in the United States, which, according to Russian propaganda, allegedly forces Biden to withdraw from the political arena in order to promote its candidate, Kamala Harris. Harris is presented as a puppet of this shadowy structure, and Donald Trump as a fighter against it. All this echoes Trump's own rhetoric.
Read about this and more in the new issue of our monitoring of Russian state media and manipulative sites that specifically spread Russian disinformation.
Joe Biden pulls out of the race
On 21 July, US President Joe Biden issued a statement in which he declined to continue his bid for the presidency. In his letter, he expresses his gratitude and support for Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris has become the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Russian propaganda has exploded. The first thesis is that they knew this for a long time and predicted this development (in fact, they didn't, at least it wasn't widely discussed, the Russian media focused on ridiculing Biden). The Kremlin's information service immediately began working on a form that would allow it to cover the events in a way that would be favorable to Moscow.
Biden is not a hero
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova immediately posted a message on social media saying that the American media and politicians should repent and be punished for having previously convinced everyone that Joe Biden was healthy. Allegedly, the media and the Democrats colluded: "The next step after Biden's written announcement of his withdrawal from the race should be an investigation into the collusion of the US media and political circles that concealed the true state of affairs about his mental condition, manipulated public opinion and played along with one political party." This echoes statements by Trumpists calling for Biden's impeachment.
Kremlin propaganda has always said that Biden was not well, and now he himself has been forced to withdraw. This is hard to imagine in the Russian information field because the old Putin did not take such a step in his "election."
So, one of the explanations for the propaganda is that Biden was forced to do it. He was taken out of the race by representatives of the Deep State.
The Deep State is the concept that in the United States, there is a coordinated group or groups of unelected public officials who influence public policy despite the democratically elected leadership. Russian propaganda explains that the Deep State appoints US presidents, tries to manage the globalization of the world, and promotes liberalism and LGBT values.
Donald Trump, according to his own version, which coincides with that of the Russian propagandists, is trying to oppose the Deep State, so the US Deep State will not allow him to come to power. The Deep State is behind the attempted assassination of Trump. After the failed assassination attempt on Trump, the Deep State, realizing that Joe Biden cannot defeat Trump, is betting on another — Kamala Harris.
The American Yeltsin
Z propaganda started comparing Joe Biden to Boris Yeltsin. The Russian media spread the news about Biden accompanied by a fake quote attributed to Yeltsin: "I'm tired. I am leaving."
Yeltsin is a negative hero in contemporary Russia. The current assessment of his personality is that he ruined the country's reputation and tried to bring democracy to Russia on the orders of the collective West, which only created chaos in the country. When Putin replaced him as president, it was divine providence. Today, it is happening in the United States: Trump has been proclaimed a leader. He has also been proclaimed a messenger of the Lord God to save America. This is no exaggeration. Republicans are very religious people, and they see Trump as a messenger from God.
Instead of the weak Biden, Donald Trump will become president, who will improve relations between the US and Russia and restore traditional values to the US.
Biden's legacy
Russian propaganda has always portrayed Biden as a thief and a representative of an empire of lies. He is an enemy of Russia, and his legacy is the beginning of the war in Ukraine, NATO's war against Russia, and economic restrictions on Russia. Biden has long been accused of various sins, such as undermining Nord Stream, fomenting war in the Middle East or running European governments: "Attention should now be focused not on funny pictures of him falling somewhere, reacting inappropriately or not reacting at all, but on the crimes committed under the auspices of his presidency: uncontrolled arms supplies, turning a European country into a terrorist state with a terrorist regime, collapsing the economies of EU countries, uncontrolled migration, endless political machinations, endangering the existence of states in the Middle East."
The American establishment on the brink of war
The propaganda promotes the thesis that there is now a split in the camp of the US Democratic Party. That politicians from the supposed Obama "clan" are at loggerheads with the Clinton "clan." They are fighting over who will replace the candidate: "A split in the Democratic Party between the Clinton and Obama teams. Harris's nomination is not decided. Biden wants Harris. Bill Clinton and Hillary are also for Harris. But Obama proposes a quick mini-primary. And the Democratic leaders in the Senate and the House of Representatives are also in favor of new quick primaries. It's a fierce fight now."
With these theses, Russian propaganda discredits the democratic processes in the United States, reducing them to an under-the-carpet struggle typical of the so-called Kremlin towers (the name given to the various influential groups in the Russian leadership, which are actually similar in structure to clans). Everything is supposedly decided by politicians, not by voters.
Kamala Harris — new target of Russian propaganda
After it became clear that the vice president in Joe Biden's administration was the main contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, Russian propaganda launched an anti-Harris campaign.
She is called incompetent: "She has no experience in managing large structures, either administrative or business. She has no international experience. She has no understanding of the outside world. She has no charisma, people don't like her. She has no clear views. She has often changed her views on important issues to suit the situation."
Harris is a candidate of the deep state: She has the image of being a puppet of the State Department and the big bosses," and is therefore a tame candidate. If she is elected president, she will be governed by representatives of the Deep State and the Clinton' clan'.
Harris is also associated with George Soros, so he will influence US policy: "Even earlier, the great and terrible George Soros took notice of her. When Harris was California's attorney general, he funded several of her criminal justice initiatives. When Kamala decided to run for the Senate, Soros donated to her campaign."
What else they wrote about
NATO and the USA are prolonging the war in Ukraine
Propaganda accuses the collective West of prolonging the war in Ukraine. They stress that Russia is the victim, so Moscow owes nothing to anyone: "This is absolutely unacceptable. There is no "owing"! Russia definitely does not owe Zelenskyy and his junta anything! And I am sure it will not participate in any so-called summits on the terms of the Kyiv puppets and their Western masters." He is referring to the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland, which Ukraine organized in June this year.
According to the propaganda, Russia is seeking peace. It does not want a confrontation with NATO: "Russia has stressed that Moscow has no plans to enter into a conflict with NATO or attack any European state. Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the West is deliberately raising this issue to weaken our country."
The only way to bring peace to the European continent is for the West to stop supporting Ukraine: "To end the war, it is first necessary for the West to stop 'pumping Ukraine with weapons."
The murder of Iryna Farion
The Russian media also mentioned the murder of Iryna Farion. On 19 July, an unidentified gunman shot linguist and former Ukrainian MP Iryna Farion near her home and fled. Russian propaganda was quick to react to the crime. Disinformers recalled all of Farion's scandals and claimed that Russia was definitely not involved in the murder. Allegedly, she had no political weight and was generally useful for Russian information policy.
The propagandists claimed that Farion was killed by Ukrainians themselves. The reason was that Farion hated Russian-speaking Ukrainians: "She was mad with Russophobia and insulted the soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces who speak Russian. Given that even among Russians, there are Banderites and fascists, it is obvious that Banderites, some Azovets, shot at her. The showdown among Russophobes is of various shades", "Most likely, Russian-speaking Banderites from the front did the shooting."
The other accused are the Office of the President of Ukraine and Zelensky personally. Allegedly, he is preparing to de-escalate the conflict and fulfill Russian demands. Farion would prevent him from doing so: "Zelenskyy is set to discuss de-escalation with Trump, but in this case, nationalists, as well as western Ukraine and Russophobes, will oppose him, and Farion could be the speaker of the western Ukrainian protests. Why? Because Russia is putting forward — the Russian language and denazification — that are contrary to the worldview of people like her."
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The Methodology
To monitor the information published on disinformation websites, we analyzed approximately 500,000 news reports collected from ~ 1,000 Russian websites. The data for the analysis was collected and provided by SemanticForce.
Each paragraph was processed using an algorithm which defines its topic automatically. The resulting topics (i.e. groups with similar content) were short-listed by the topics relating to the war or its consequences for Russia. The number of mentions of a certain topic was then counted for each publication. Our conclusions are based on the respective findings and the quotes from paragraphs referring to each topic.
This article was originally written in Ukrainian. It has been translated into English using AI tools such as DeepL, ChatGPT, and Grammarly. If you encounter an error that requires immediate attention, please inform us via Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Your understanding and support are appreciated.
