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The Kremlin works to blame Ukraine, the West for Moscow attack
The Kremlin has embraced a challenge in the wake of last week’s deadly terror attack in Moscow: pinning the blame on its enemies.
Russian officials have stepped up their efforts to point the finger at Ukraine and the West — a task made more difficult by a lack of publicly presented evidence, denials by Kyiv matched by claims of responsibility by the Islamic State terrorist group, and contradictions in the narrative put forth by the Kremlin’s hawks.
Although President Vladimir Putin offered early hints of the claim that Ukraine was in some way involved in the concert hall attack, the Russian leader and his propaganda machine have doubled down on those claims in recent days. The head of the country’s Federal Security Service (FSB) even suggested Tuesday that it was not just Kyiv but the United States and Britain that were behind the attack, which has now claimed at least 140 lives.
Ukraine and its allies have dismissed the accusations, while the U.S. has said ISIS was solely responsible for the attack.
Four Tajik nationals charged in the attack appeared severely beaten in a Moscow court Sunday, raising questions about how reliable any testimony they give will be. On Monday, Putin admitted for the first time that the attack had been carried out by “radical Islamists,” while again suggesting that Ukraine was involved.
FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov took it further Tuesday and said that “primary data” received from the suspects so far points to a “Ukrainian trace” because “the Islamists alone were unable to prepare such an act.” Bortnikov also accused Kyiv of training militants in the Middle East.
His words were echoed by another high-ranking official in Putin’s entourage Tuesday: the secretary of Russia’s National Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev. “Of course, Ukraine,” Patrushev said, answering a question from a journalist about whether ISIS or Kyiv was to blame for the attack.
But the Kremlin accusations, while increasingly definitive, have lacked any evidence, details or clarity.
“Overall, there’s an odd disconnect. The official line, that Ukrainians recruited jihadists, is being parroted, but often with little conviction,” Mark Galeotti, head of the consultancy Mayak Intelligence and an honorary professor at University College London, wrote on X. “Despite talk of consequences, nothing is really emerging, leaving the authorities looking rather weak.”
Russian propaganda has dismissed the ISIS claim of responsibility since the night of the attack, when observers feared that the Kremlin might seek to exploit the situation by blaming its enemies in Ukraine and the West.
That has been borne out in the days since.
On Wednesday, the pro-Kremlin newspaper Argumenty i Fakty splashed across its front page the faces of President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the leaders of Germany, France and the United Kingdom against the burning Crocus concert hall in the background, with a tagline that read: “We know the masterminds of the terrorist attack in Crocus. … Let them tell each other the nonsense about ISIS.”
When asked why Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, would be in league with Islamist extremists, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov suggested it was not so far-fetched. The Ukrainian leader is a “peculiar” Jewish person who sympathizes with Nazis, Peskov said Tuesday, resorting to the Kremlin’s baseless trope about Zelenskyy and his government.
Russia’s Investigative Committee also said Wednesday that it would look into an appeal by several lawmakers to investigate how the U.S. and other Western countries are allegedly organizing, financing and carrying out terror acts against Russia.
Pushing that narrative could serve several purposes.
It detracts from any meaningful discussion about the failure of Russia’s own security services, which have been busy cracking down on domestic dissent and seemingly missed an attack that was clearly well planned and that the U.S. had warned about weeks in advance.
How “prebunking” misinformation works – CBS News
This week on 60 Minutes, correspondent Lesley Stahl reported on the ongoing debate over how social media companies, including Meta, X and Google, moderate harmful content, like false medical information and hate speech, on their platforms.
Some critics say these companies are not doing enough to combat the proliferation of this content on their sites. At the same time, some politicians, like Rep. Jim Jordan, are accusing the companies of colluding with the government to silence conservative voices online.
60 Minutes spoke with Sander van der Linden, a professor of social psychology and director of the Social Decision-Making Laboratory at Cambridge University.
Van der Linden’s research centers on how people interact with misleading or false information on social media, and why some end up believing things that are either half-true or completely false.
Van der Linden told Stahl that misinformation, content that is entirely false, exists on social media, but misleading information, like half-truths and biased narratives, is much more prevalent.
The professor gave an example of misleading information that went viral during the COVID-19 pandemic. An article with a highly misleading headline was published in the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The headline said, “A ‘healthy’ doctor died two weeks after getting a COVID-19 vaccine; CDC is investigating why.”
The article was seen by tens of millions on Facebook, becoming the most-viewed article in the first quarter of 2021. It was used by skeptics and conspiracy theorists online to suggest COVID-19 vaccines didn’t work and could even kill people.
“It’s highly misleading because it’s suggesting that the doctor died because of the COVID vaccine. But of course…still to this day there’s been no evidence that the vaccine actually was the cause of death for this doctor,” van der Linden explained.
Van der Linden’s research and work at Cambridge is based on a theory called psychological inoculation. The theory: if you understand how misinformation can manipulate you before you see it, you are less likely to believe it.
He said one of the ways that you can “inoculate” yourself from misinformation is through a through a process called “prebunking.”
“By deconstructing it and refuting it in advance, people can actually build up psychological or mental antibodies, so they become more resistant to misinformation in the future,” he told Stahl.
Van der Linden and his colleagues at Cambridge have worked with a variety of partners, including social media platforms, government agencies, and public health organizations, to develop educational videos and video games that show people the common manipulative techniques used to propagate misinformation.
One game called “Go Viral!” was released during the pandemic, in partnership with the U.N.’s World Health Organization. It puts players in the shoes of a propagandist that’s spreading lies about COVID-19 and vaccines. Users can earn a higher score in the simulation by making false claims, citing made-up studies and phony experts, and by writing posts with emotionally manipulative language.
Van der Linden’s team at Cambridge also worked with tech giant Google to create videos that illustrate common misinformation tactics. The videos were viewed by millions of people on YouTube, placed where an ad would normally play before a video starts.
One of those videos used a scene from “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” to help explain the concept of a false dichotomy. Obi-Wan Kenobi is presented with a narrow set of choices, designed to make him choose sides when more options are available.
The people who saw that video, and a group who didn’t, were presented with an online quiz to gauge the project’s effectiveness. Those who saw it were, on average, better at identifying manipulative tactics.
But lately, according to Sander van der Linden, the political debate around content moderation has had a chilling effect on social media companies’ willingness to expand and implement new “prebunking” initiatives.
“Because they fear that there’s going to be critiques and that users are not going to like it because of the politicization of doing anything about misinformation,” he told 60 Minutes.
“This is the lowest hanging fruit. This is just empowering people to identify manipulation. And even that is, you know, to some extent controversial for them.”
The video above was produced by Will Croxton. It was edited by Matthew Lev, Will Croxton and Sarah Shafer.
How “prebunking” misinformation works – CBS News
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Urban beekeeping project works to restore honey bee populations with hives all over Washington, D.C.
From rooftops to government gardens, embassies to office buildings, if you know where to look, you’ll find honey bees buzzing all over Washington, D.C.
The cityscape has become a hospitable home to the pollinators. About 15 years ago, honey bee populations hit an all-time low, so in 2014, former President Barack Obama launched a national strategy to protect and promote the insects. Bees and other pollinators are critical to the global food supply, pollinating about a third of the world’s crops and three-fourths of all flowering plants.
Soon after Obama’s strategy was launched, hives were humming at government facilities across the country.
Some live in unassuming boxes at a secure compound near the U.S. State Department. They’re team-oriented, mission-focused drones, making them the perfect federal employees. The sweet honey they produce is just a bonus.
“We try to keep them apolitical,” joked Keith Hanigan, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary in charge of operations. He’s also in charge of the building’s bees.
“Bees is really one of the most important things I do here for the State Department,” Hanigan said. “We wanted to do our part, and we (knew) that other agencies were getting involved as well. So it seemed like something small and simple that we could do.”
Thanks to the diligent efforts of beekeepers, the honey bee population has largely rebounded and stabilized over the past few years, even as pesticides, mites and habitat loss still pose a threat.
While bees historically haven’t gotten very good buzz, the project is helping rehabilitate their image.
“I think now you see them and you want to nurture them, you want to take care of them,” Hanigan said. “I think it’s really raised the awareness, certainly for me, but I think for a lot of our staff.”
Urban beekeepers like Solomon Jeong say that education efforts are also helping to win over hearts and minds.
“A lot more people are more aware of like, how important (bees) are, as well as how cute they are,” Jeong said. “If you see a photo, they’re fuzzy and round. It’s almost like a teddy bear or something.”
Teaching people about bee habits also helps, Jeong said.
“(Honey bees are) not going to be interested in you or your food. They’re not going to be like ‘Oh, there’s a human, let’s go sting them,'” Jeong said.
The bees aren’t just on U.S. government buildings. On the rooftop of the Canadian embassy, there are tens of thousands of bees, led by queen bees nicknamed “Bee-Once” and “Celine Bee-on.”
Sean Robertson, who manages the facility for the Canadian government, said the bees churn out about 100 jars of honey each year.
“I often say it’s one of my favorite parts of my job, actually coming up here and getting to work with the bees,” Robertson said.
Kerry Breen
