FAKE NEWS: Protests in Russia, a show for the Western media

Pro-Kremlin messengers - media, influencers, etc. - try to promote the idea that the demonstrations that took place after Navalny's arrest and the revelations about Putin's palace were the result of manipulations from the outside.

NEWS: "Russian public figure and politician Nikolai Starikov has told FAN what he thinks about the new provocations of the supporters of blogger Alexei Navalny, who is trying to attract as many people as possible to take part in illegal actions in Russian cities.

"Yes, someone goes out ... they spoil people's day, organize fights with the police ... But this cannot lead to anything positive. The most important thing is that the real instigators are in the United States. They say it straight that they will not ask permission for any rally or protest. They need banned rallies, clashes between people and the police, people detained and arrested", Starikov said.

NARRATIVES: 1. Protests are not manifestations of citizens’ discontent but the results of manipulation by certain forces. 2. The leaders of the protesters are, in fact, seeking to have foreign media speak about them. 3. The violence during protests and law enforcement agents detaining people are actually provoked by the organizers of such protests in order to portray themselves as victims and sabotage Russia’s image abroad. 4. The real organizers of the protests are outside the country. 5. (indirectly) Anti-government demonstrations, "color revolutions" are supported and organized by Western special services with the aim of destabilizing foreign states.

LOCAL CONTEXT / ETHOS: On January 23, large protests broke out in Russia in support of the Putin opponent Alexei Navalny. He had been detained upon return to the country on January 17, after spending several months in Germany, where he had been treated for poisoning with a Novichok nerve agent; while in Germany, Navalny also released recordings purportedly proving that the Russian secret services were behind the assassination attempt on him. Participation in the demonstrations was also boosted by a Fund investigation to support the opposition politician Alexei Navalnyi. By February 12, the video had garnered nearly 112 million views.

Protests were held in more than 70 localities, and authorities reacted by detaining more than 3,300 protesters. The demonstrations took place without authorization – even though the right to organize demonstrations is enshrined in the Russian Constitution – and the illegal nature of the protests was persistently emphasized on official information and propaganda channels. The discursive reaction to protests is based on a recipe used for years to discredit both domestic protests and pro-democracy movements in other ex-Soviet countries and not only (see the narratives in official statements and also in the pro-Kremlin press with regard to the “color revolutions”, the Arab Spring, the Euromaidan, etc.)

Pro-democracy protests and movements are always organized by external forces, those who participate in them are manipulated to do so, their purpose is to destabilize national and patriotic regimes, protest leaders seek personal gain (image, politics, money, etc.) and, anyway, they are not people able to ensure the governing of the country - Navalny, for example, is insistently presented as a "blogger", not as an opponent or activist.

Nikolai Starikov is a Russian nationalist and pro-Putin commentator / politician / writer, described a few years ago as an anti-Maidan activist.

RIAFAN is a so-called news agency derived from the famous “troll factory” in St. Petersburg, one of the Kremlin's disinformation tools.

OBJECTIVE: To discredit the protests, divert attention from the regime's problems (the situation in the country, Putin's palace), redirect dissatisfaction to the external enemy - the West - and mobilize internal forces to defend the regime, which is conveniently taken for the homeland.

WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: The protests were triggered by Navalny's persecution and the dissatisfaction with high-level corruption and illegal actions by the authorities. It is, therefore, a matter of domestic dissatisfaction, not external conspiracy. The reaction of the authorities – mobilizing police forces with combat gear, thousands of arrests - was disproportionate and meant to discourage participation in the protests, because the protesters were peaceful, therefore there was no provocation on their part.