In addition, daily information on the war situation is disseminated by the Institute for the Study of War and other U.S. research institutes after considerable scrutiny of the information, and real-time war situation, but at least on a few days basis, information close to factual has been reported. This is also a characteristic of the coverage of the recent invasion of Ukraine.
Especially “misinformation” inside Russia
Looking back, there was one area in particular where there was a lot of misinformation. That is, information revealing the inner workings of Russia’s political and military circles. For example, around the middle of June 2022, the author received the following question from several media outlets.
The British media reported that the British intelligence agency MI6 had analyzed that President Putin was using “shadow warriors” and that the possibility that he is already dead could not be denied. What do you think about this?”
The author’s answer is as follows.
It has no informational value at this time.
This was originally reported by the British tabloid “Daily Star” on May 28 of the same year. The next day, British tabloids followed suit, and some Japanese media also reported it. However, the following media did not “corroborate” the story. With information from only one newspaper with no evidence does not guarantee credibility, and at least at that point, we can only evaluate the information as “no” evidence.
Thus, “information” that has no evidentiary basis and has not been checked by multiple sources has often been reported as an inside story in the Russian government.
There is growing discontent within the Russian military against Putin, and a covert coup is being planned.
Putin has named his successor from among his younger aides.
Information such as “Putin has named his successor from among his younger aides” and top-secret information inside the Kremlin and the Russian military cannot be leaked so easily under wartime conditions and with the Russian side on high alert. The same is true of Putin’s illness, which was frequently reported for a while. Parkinson’s disease,” “advanced cancer,” and other theories were bandied about, but there was no clear evidence of any of them.
Based on this background, the author has kept the British tabloid newspapers as one of the unreliable sources of information on this war outside of Japan, as only a reference source. Not only this time, there are many ” skipped articles” in general. In the tabloid genre, the same is true of the U.S. tabloids.
However, Japanese major media often quote British tabloids and report “According to the British media…”. It is interesting as a story, so TV quotes it again. I have no objection to introducing them as reference information, but we should be careful about introducing them as if they were “truth” . Indeed, these “references” are eye-catching as “headlines.
‘Russian conglomerate says Putin has blood cancer’ (The Daily Star)
FSB official sentenced to three years to live with advanced cancer” (Daily Mail)
Putin is losing his eyesight” (The Daily Mirror)
Often these sources were Ukrainian military intelligence . Boudanov himself frequently sent out to the media, and there were several such theories about Putin’s serious illness, including the statement that ” Putin is suffering from multiple ailments, including cancer. Naturally, Ukrainian intelligence agencies are tasked with producing damaging intelligence on Russia . Therefore, it is necessary to accept such information as unconfirmed information sent from the Ukrainian side, but there are many “reports” that skip that part.
SNS “generals” are sending out information “as if they had seen it before.
As for inside information from the Russian political and military circles, there is often misinformation even in independent media based in the Baltic states and other countries . Latvia-based “Meduza” and others report on the situation in Russia in considerable detail, and are often quoted in international media in Europe and the United States. However, there is also unconfirmed information with questionable credibility, especially inside information from the Kremlin and military.
Also, there are many reports that quote dubious sources as they are. One account on the SNS “Telegram” called “SVR General” is quoted even by major foreign media. This account, which claims to be a retired general of the SVR (Russian Foreign Intelligence Service), transmits information on the inner workings of the Kremlin, etc., but the contents of the account are truly suspicious.
The account is very suspicious. “Chief of General Staff Gerasimov threw a tantrum,” he says, as if he had seen the contents of a meeting at the center of Russia. The author also tried to follow him on Telegram, but he looks like a suspicious Q-Anon conspiracy theory YouTuber.
The US tabloid “New York Post” often quotes the SVR General’s information verbatim, without any independent corroboration of course, and the SVR General has been quoted many times in ” Newsweek” as ” by the SVR General, who is said to be a source of inside information on the Kremlin and Newsweek, which has now left its Washington Post affiliate , is not limited to the Ukrainian invasion, but is still “skipping” stories in international news.
What’s behind the “skim” reporting?
To complicate matters a bit, the real Richard Dearlove, former MI6 director, and Christopher Steele, former MI6 Russia officer, were running Putin’s serious illness theory in British tabloids and other newspapers under their own names. The value of their positions made the information seem credible , but it turned out to be a mere flight of fancy.
By the way, it was not the tabloids but the aforementioned “Newsweek” that most concretely wrote about Putin’s serious illness . The June 2 edition of the same magazine wrote quite specifically, “According to U.S. intelligence officials, Putin is already undergoing treatment for advanced cancer. Later, on July 20, CIA Director Burns said, “We have no information to indicate that he is ill. He is rather too healthy. The next day, British Director Moore also said, “There is no evidence of illness. The next day, British Director Moore M I6 also declared, “There is no evidence of illness at all. This too was a hoax.
As for the venerable and well-known media, there is also The Times, a British luxury newspaper founded in the 18th century. While independent reports by a single newspaper that cannot be corroborated are often not very helpful , The Times stood out for its independent reporting, especially in the early stages of the war. There were a number of cases in which The Times alone reported unconfirmed information with little basis that seemed to come from Ukrainian sources . However, since the Times is now affiliated with the politically charged media magnate Rupard Murdoch, this may have had some influence.
Don’t be fooled by the fakes.
In any case, much of the poorly substantiated information about the Russian regime center is very much from (1) Russian suspicious telegram accounts, and (2) information originating in London, . Note that the British Ministry of Defense also continues to publish war analysis reports on Ukraine , but apparently they tend to “embellish” the information to the detriment of the Russian side .
In any case, we would like to recommend that you do not jump in and evaluate “surprising revelations” published by one media outlet, and check if other leading media outlets corroborate and report them. If it is a Japanese media report, it is important to check if the quotation is from ” only one source” somewhere overseas.
