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At the end of 2018, the Atlantic Council, the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity, and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation in partnership with StopFake and the Razumkov Center established the Ukrainian Election Task Force. The Task Force launched an online dashboard ukraineelects.org providing a real-time index of efforts to interfere in Ukraine’s democratic process. In January 2019, NGO Detector Media joined the Task Force in order to weekly monitor the top-rated Russian political talk shows and their coverage of Ukraine and the Presidential elections. Here you can find the results of the first month of monitoring published on the project’s website.

This is a regular weekly report by Detector Media, a partner of the Ukrainian Election Task Force, offering exclusive content covering the three main Russian state TV talk shows, particularly these shows’ coverage of Ukraine and the Presidential elections. Kremlin-backed media outlets often generate disinformation narratives that are then spread throughout Ukraine as well as Western Europe and the United States. We have identified these TV shows as the main amplifiers of the key disinformation narratives that the Kremlin’s propaganda machine seeks to circulate in the public domain. The messages spread in these shows are further multiplied by the wide network of hundreds and thousands of print, TV, radio and online outlets, as well as via the social media, which target consumers of the Russian-language information ecosystem, including Ukrainians. Indeed, the audience is not limited to within Russia’s borders but also extends to Ukraine itself.

According to the research of Detector Media, 5 percent of Ukrainians receive information about the events in Ukraine and the world from Russian TV channels. In the absolute figures there are about 1.4 million of Ukrainian citizens. 67 percent of those who receive information from Russian TV channels inhabit Southern and Eastern Ukraine.

Programs included in the monitoring: Time Will Tell (Channel One), Evening with Vladimir Solovyov (Russia 1), News of the Week with Dmitry Kiselev (Russia 1)

Monitoring period: February 11-24

Number of programs partially devoted to Ukraine (share in the total number): 22/42

February 11-17

The main topics of the week related to Ukraine included the anniversary of the Minsk Agreements and the confrontation between the police and activists following the rally for the murdered activist Katya Handzyuk. Through the prism of these events, the TV shows declared that Russia did not violate the Minsk Agreements and that Nazism prevailed in the Ukrainian government.

On February 9, during a confrontation between protesters and police near a Kyiv police station, one of the law enforcement officers shouted “Down, you Banderite!” as he detained an activist. The head of the city police later apologized for the officer’s expression, calling it inadmissible. Other top law enforcement officials expressed similar opinions about the incident. The Russian shows used the censure of the officer who used the expression as evidence of an alleged toleration of Nazism in the ranks of the Ukrainian government. For example, guests and presenters of Time Will Show fumed at the alleged plan to only punish the policeman who shouted the phrase about Bandera. In fact, the authorities have prepared charges for another person who hit the protester lying on the ground. In addition, Russian shows emphatically claimed that the “Nazis” who “stormed” the police station went unpunished. In fact, authorities served four of them with charges. Moreover, the police temporarily detained 40 of the protesters and launched an investigation into hooliganism, seizure of state buildings, and threat of violence against law enforcement. The protesters claim, on the other hand, that they did not storm the building but only demanded the return of their confiscated belongings.

As for the Minsk Agreements, the shows stated that Russia has no role in the Agreements and therefore cannot violate them, contrary to the position of US Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker. However, Russia is clearly both a party to and in violation of the Minsk Agreements through the presence of Russian heavy weapons and soldiers in Ukraine, by organizing illegal elections in The Donbas, by blocking the exchange of prisoners, and the supply of humanitarian aid.

At the same time, the shows accused the Ukrainian authorities of violating the Agreements and neglecting the residents of The Donbas. Evening with Vladimir Solovyov warned the inhabitants of The Donbas that the authorities in Kyiv may escalate the conflict and even carry out “cleansing.” In reality, Petro Poroshenko has repeatedly stated that only a diplomatic solution will restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

The shows also repeatedly denigrated Ukraine. Commentators called the country “a terrible absess,” claimed that Ukraine “appeared accidentally,” and said that when they hear the word “Ukraine” they want to wash their hands and ears.” The show’s participants described Ukrainians who took part in the Revolution of Dignity as “Darwin Award Winners” and called “political Ukrainians” “genetic garbage and shame of the Ukrainian people.”

Once again, we see that Russian TV shows continue to discredit Ukraine and the Ukrainian authorities instead of focusing on the legitimate dimensions of the upcoming presidential election or its candidates.

February 18-24

The main topics of the week related to Ukraine include the fifth anniversary of the shootings during the Revolution of Dignity and the international orientation of Ukraine. Russian propagandists insisted that the West is using Ukraine rather than supporting it and claimed that the Revolution of Dignity was an illegal coup which lead to the collapse of the country.

Commentators on Time Will Show called the Maidan “the first separatist formation in Ukraine,” while those on Evening with Vladimir Solovyov referred to the protest movement as the “funeral banquet for Ukraine,” the “establishing of the American colonial regime,” and the “revolution of shit.”

The shows’ participants espoused many conspiracy theories about the Ukrainian revolution. For example, that someone ordered the snipers who fired on the Maidan protesters to kill a hundred people, because it is a favorable number for political technology. However, 107 people died in the protests, and only eighty-four of them during the shootings of February 18-20, 2014. The commentators also claimed that some of the participants handed out tea infused with illegal drugs during the Maidan, and that unsuspecting old women who drank the infusions are still in drug rehab clinics. In fact, the protesters adhered to a strict, self-imposed no-drug code during the demonstrations.

In addition, commentators on all of the talk shows referred to the events of 2013-2014 in Ukraine as a coup. This lie is among those most frequently repeated by the Kremlin about the protests in Ukraine. In fact, Viktor Yanukoych’s backtracking and refusal to sign the Association Agreement with the EU prompted the initial protests. The spontaneous revolution at first primarily sought not to overthrow the government but to redirect the values and vector of the country’s development. It thus became known as the Revolution of Dignity.

The Russian television shows also promoted the idea that Crimea and The Donbas “moved away” from Ukraine independently in response to the Maidan. In reality, Ukraine and most of the international community disagree: the UN maintains that Russia continues to occupy Crimea, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe regards Russia’s presence in The Donbas as an occupation.

In the world of the pro-Kremlin propagandists, Nazism, which supposedly overtook Ukraine after the Revolution of Dignity, motivated the territorial “split” of the country. Commentators on Time Will Show claimed that the UEFA Champions League has even imposed fines on Ukrainian fans for the “nationalist” slogan “Glory to Ukraine.” In fact, despite Russian protests, the European Football Association has allowed Ukrainian national football team to put this phrase on their t-shirts.

The programs also maligned Western support for Ukraine. The shows’ participants suggested that the United States and Europe simply use Ukraine for their own objectives against Russia. Commentators on Time Will Show claimed that President of the European Council Donald Tusk spoke in the Verkhovna Rada on behalf of “anti-Russian and pro-American Europe.” Discussions on Evening with Vladimir Solovyov declared that Ukraine had already removed the prohibition of foreign military bases on its territory from the Constitution. Unsurprisingly, the reality is exactly the opposite: the parliament removed the clause which allowed foreign military bases on terms of lease.

Evening with Vladimir Solovyov captured the leitmotif in all of the shows: “The ideas of Maidan did not work.“ This strategic narrative, one we have covered before, is key to the pro-Kremlin disinformation machine. In fact, most of the demands put forward during the Revolution have been realized: Ukraine has advanced in the Corruption Perceptions Index and Press Freedom Index, and 70 percent of Ukrainians believe that the events of Maidan should be honored.