Russian Propaganda Demonizes Ukraine and Israel

“The Russian Academy of Science Accuses Gypsies and Jews of Spreading Measles in Russia.”

This recent Moscow Times headline, based on a claim by Russia’s top epidemiologist Nikolay Bryko, may sound Borat-like—but unlike Sacha Baron Cohen’s character, it’s not fictional.

It’s a snippet of Russia’s ever-growing antisemitism, intensified by its full-scale war on Ukraine, over support for Iran in Israel’s war on the mullah regime and its terrorist proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, before and after Oct.7, and robust propaganda aimed at vilifying not just Ukraine, but Israel and Jews too.

The messaging is always the same. Ukraine is evil, and so is Israel. The Jews are to blame for [insert your reason]. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a “Jew-Nazi like Hitler,” carrying out a “genocide of his own people.”

With over 1 million followers on X, Jackson Hinkle, a Moscow regular American pseudo-political commentator, is the ambassador-in-chief of all these falsehoods combined.

After siding with Moscow in its war on Ukraine, the goal of which is to fully subjugate the country and incorporate it into Russia, he has been systematically mocking and demonizing Kyiv and Jerusalem, all while being supportive of Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and virtually all rogue leaders and countries worldwide.

But he’s by no means an exception.

Russian propagandists, big and small, are fully nurturing Iran, with propagandistic virtuoso Vladimir Solovyev, known for his solemn claim that “Mossad agents” “Eli Kopter” and “Mahshir Kesher” are each responsible for the death of Iran’s ruler Ebrahim Ra’isi and the Hezbollah beeper operation, recently begging the question of what “has Iran ever done wrong?

They likewise show support for the Palestinian “cause,” “exposing the evil face of Zionist expansionism”; intentionally accuse the world of “ignoring the plight of the Gaza people” who “cares about Ukraine too much”; and falsely compare Israel’s just fight against Hamas to their poorly disguised imperial ambitions in what they consider to be their “natural sphere of influence.”

Even Russian rock star Andrey Makarevich, an avid Ukraine supporter who moved to Israel in 2022, failed to escape their unsolicited attention. After lately being dubbed “captured Israeli pilot” by Iranian state news, he justly pointed out that this cheeky falsehood is Russia’s signature-style propagandistic doing, not their ally’s.

Russia’s deeply antisemitic approach is all the more evident in their psyops on social media.

In 2023, thousands of Ukrainian accounts and beyond reported seeing sponsored content on Facebook with defeatist messages.

“Bidon’s (a Russian slang for ex-POTUS Joe Biden that compares a person with a condom, L.D.) office is not ready to support Ukraine in capturing Crimea. Despite the statements that the US will help the Kyiv regime as long as necessary, Washington does not wish to fully support Kyiv’s ambitions,” the caption of a post published at night by an anonymous account, Tenhaunan, reads.

Though nonsensical as it labels Kyiv’s democratically-elected government as “a regime” —a term used exclusively by the Kremlin and its adherents —and its intention to liberate its own land, Crimea, as “capture,” it is also deliberately seasoned with the stereotypical amplification of Zelenky’s “Jewish face features.”

An example of Russian psyops on Facebook. Source: Tenhaun’s Facebook

That psyop, widely mocked and bygone, has since transformed into a more nuanced approach—like that of the Facebook handle Valsotayvs Avokdip, per legend, a great patriot of Ukraine. Despite allegedly seeking the country’s victory, Avokdip also incorporates the typical Russian Facebook bot’s characteristics: fake profile picture, high intensity of post-sharing critical of Ukraine’s leaders, and an unusually large amount of followers for an obscure handle.

“putler (slang for Putin that compares him with Hitler, L.D.) brought war into our home, but it was zelenskyy and zaluzhnyi who opened the door to him,” the caption in the picture, accompanied by a Menorah, reads.

An example of Russian propaganda on Facebook. Source: Valsotayvs Avokdip’s Facebook

This peculiar mix of antisemitism featuring a clumsy attempt to compare Zelenskyy and Zaluzhnyi with Putin, including by using the Latin letter Z that Russian invaders mark their equipment and troops with, is coupled with a suggestion that two Jews – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former top general Valerii Zaluzhnyi – are fighting for power in Ukraine dubbed “a corporation.”

Russian bots on X follow a similar modus operandi under the “critical patriotic Ukrainian” legend. However, they reveal their affiliations even more openly by interacting with accounts and posts like Hinkle’s. The caption to the one below by @danunaheer, which uses different fake profile pictures and spreads exclusively Russian narratives, reads, “Indeed.”

An example of Russian propaganda on X. Source: @danunaheer’s X

Little of this should come as a surprise given Moscow’s long-standing antisemitic track record of pogroms and arms deliveries to Israel’s foes. It is after all in Russia that the fabricated conspiracy Protocols of the Elders of Zion originated, so it might as well be the top habitat for suggestions like “Hitler had Jewish blood” made by Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, in 2022, and Jew hunts in Dagestan.

What it does show is that Moscow’s approach to the matter is systematic and deliberate, not a mere coincidence.

In fact, it’s a strategy—and an audaciously simple one too.

An innately destructive force, Russia seeks to ignite chaos, sow distrust, and put people at odds with each other in whichever way possible, and wherever possible.

If you can make everyone fight everyone while pursuing your goals, that’s a bingo. But if you can also demonize Ukrainians, Israelis, and Jews while at it, well, that’s a Christmas that came very-very early.