International | Peddling Putin’s piffle

How Russia is trying to win over the global south

Its propaganda is deceptive, multilingual and well-funded. But does it work?

Sep 22nd 2022|Buenos Aires, Hanoi, Johannesburg and Tokyo

On september 21st Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, announced the calling-up of perhaps 300,000 military reservists to fight in his sputtering war against Ukraine. The 18m followers of the rt (formerly known as Russia Today) Spanish-language Facebook page were left in no doubt as to why. Framing his invasion of Ukraine as a war for national survival, Mr Putin, rt reported, had declared that the goal of the West was to “divide and destroy” Russia.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Peddling Putin’s piffle”