On Monday 22 April, Guillaume Lasconjarias, Director of Studies and Research at the IHEDN, invited researcher Maxime Audinet to talk about his book "Un média d'influence d'Etat - Enquête sur la chaîne russe RT", published by INA. The book, which is based on the author's thesis, was awarded the Research on Journalism book prize in May 2022 at the Assises du
journalisme de Tours and was just republished last month. Maxime Audinet is a researcher in influence strategy at the Institut de recherche stratégique de l'École militaire (IRSEM), specialising in the external influence of post-Soviet Russia. He is also co-founder of CORUSCANT - Star Wars fans will appreciate this - the Collectif de recherche sur la Russie contemporaine pour l'analyse de ses nouvelles trajectoires, the European branch of the Russia Program.
"The truth is that Russia Today and Sputnik did not behave like press organs and journalists. Instead, they have behaved like organs of influence, propaganda and misleading propaganda, nothing more and nothing less". This was the response given by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, at the
joint press conference with Vladimir Putin held in Versailles on 29 May 2017, to explain the refusal of access to his headquarters to these two media outlets during the presidential campaign.
Influence, disinformation - from the Soviet-era word desinformatzia - and propaganda all have in common the manipulation of public opinion. We are currently engaged in an information war that we do not fully appreciate. Disinformation has become a weapon that is undermining our democracies. As Maxime Audinet explains, Russia relies on three types of actor:
- State actors, such as Russia Today (since renamed simply RT), who relay diplomatic messages, embassy and ministry communications, and even intelligence services.
- Unofficial players, such as the "Prigojine galaxy", disinformation contractors subcontracted by the Kremlin who do digital marketing in addition to their "normal" activities. One example is the Doppelgänger operation detected by VIGINUM (the vigilance and protection service against foreign digital interference set up in 2021).
- Third-party actors, actors from outside Russia who act for militant or ideological reasons and will relay information or even cooperate with Russian actors to help promote stories or interests that serve Russia.
With figures to back it up, the researcher points out that RT is now the best-known and most heavily subsidised player in the Russian state: it is a veritable state media of influence. It was born in the mid-2000s when Russia was confronted with the "colour revolutions", in particular the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, which it perceived as a threat, if not interference, from Western countries. It went international between 2005 and 2022, with 7 24-hour news channels and a strong digital presence after the invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions imposed by the European Union were based on political grounds, so as not to infringe freedom of expression: the measures were justified in order to weaken Russia's information capabilities abroad.
The media's stance has evolved over time: originally a soft power medium designed to improve Russia's image, seen mainly as a "big, growling bear". A complete change of posture took place after the war in South Ossetia in 2008. Russia Today then became an "alternative" global media outlet, presenting itself as a source that competed with a standard deemed dominant: a medium capable of "competing with the monopoly of the Anglo-Saxon media in the global flow of information", in Vladimir Putin's own words in 2013. "We work for the state, we defend our homeland, just as the army does," Margarita Simonian, RT's editor-in-chief, declares publicly. There is now a preference for a "populist" approach that is opposed to the silent majority of elites, and a clear desire to place the media in a context of conflict.
Through meticulous analysis, Maxime Audinet shows that RT does not have a rigid editorial line, despite the propagandist nature of the information it provides. The editorial line is elastic; it adapts to the target audience: you don't talk in the same way to Spanish speakers in Latin America as to French sovereignists. Subjects thrive on fertile ground and a good knowledge of the target audience. RT plays on the emotional chord, pressing "where it hurts", maintaining ambivalence - nothing is true and nothing is completely false - blurring perception, disorientating and making the target audience doubt the veracity of the information they usually hear.
A well-written book that plunges the reader into a police investigation into the life of the networks and calls for vigilance, given that the information war is part of a new cognitive battlefield.
Isabelle Corbier
Chair of the Studies; Perspective Committee - AA-IHEDN
To watch this strategic debate again :
