In Damascus, as over half a century of iron-fisted dictatorship crumbled to dust, journalist Zeina Shahla described the atmosphere:

• "I have lived in Damascus through all the years of the war, and this week has been like nothing else. The first two days were really violent. Now, though, people are back at work, shops are open, somehow life is becoming normal.  The future is still ambiguous. We got rid of a dictatorship that was ruining the country. We’re waiting, though, for news about the detainees. There are  more than 100,000 disappeared persons in Syria but only a few thousand have been freed. I’m still meeting each day with people who say ‘we’re searching for our loved ones. In prisons and hospitals.’ And there are many things to worry about – the economy, education, freedom of speech, freedom for women. But we have a rare chance to build something that unites all Syrians and to ensure that the Syria we are dreaming of is going to be inclusive.” 

Dialing in from a night bus making its way to Kyiv from Damascus, Oz Katerji, a British-Lebanese war correspondent and documentary filmmaker who is based in the Ukrainian capital, told us that what happened in Syria “really did feel like a slide backwards for autocracy”:

• “The story of the last 10 years has been autocrats in the ascendancy, with the interventions of Russia and Iran. So for all this to be undone in 13 days has sent a shockwave through the international community. What I saw in Damascus was a people free and expressing themselves in public for the first time in their lives. It has struck a hammer blow at Vladimir Putin’s ‘Dictatorship Protection Service’, putting a dent in his projection of both hard and soft power not only in the Middle East but also in Africa where he has been propping up dictatorships and involving himself in civil wars.”

The fall of Bashar al-Assad, as Katerji points out, has implications far beyond Syria's borders. Not least in Tbilisi, where protests have been continuing for over two weeks against the Kremlin-friendly government’s decision to suspend EU integration. According to Batu Kutelia, a former Georgian ambassador to the United States:

• “Georgia is more than Georgia. It’s not only about a tiny nation on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. It’s part of a bigger equation and it is in the pragmatic interests of the democratic world to make democracy inspiring again and not to let authoritarians claim another success story.” 

Kutelia was echoed by the Georgian photojournalist Mariam Nikuradze, a co-founder of the English-language news platform Open Caucasus Media who just days ago discovered that she was on a police wanted list for her coverage of the nightly demonstrations:

• "I don’t see the spirit of protestors dying anytime soon. Being a journalist  in Georgia has never been so dangerous. So many of my friends have been injured. But it just makes people angrier and they are not giving up. It’s very hard to predict what will happen but it’s getting harder and harder for this government to hold onto power.” 

What happened in Syria, Nikuradze told us, “gives hope.” But, as the Ukrainian human rights lawyer and Nobel laureate  Oleksandra Matviichuk pointed out, the path ahead is long and fraught:

• "We are losing freedom. This year, half the population of the Earth had elections. But don’t be naive, 80% of the world lives in non-free or partially free societies. This means that people who have a real right to vote are in the minority. The problem is not just the fact that in authoritarian countries the space for freedom is shrinking to the size of a prison cell, the problem is that even in democracies people start to question the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Freedom is very fragile. We have to support each other in our fight for freedom because we live in an interconnected world and only the spread of freedom makes the world safer.”

Writer Peter Pomerantsev, a contributing editor at Coda, is currently in Kyiv, where he was born though he was educated in Britain and lives in Washington, DC. Picking up on Matviichuk’s remarks about interconnectedness, he argued:

• "If you listen to someone like [U.S. vice president-elect] JD Vance, he says ‘we need to get away from the foreign policy of values, that’s been a disaster. We need to just think about our self-interest and security.’ But these things aren’t necessarily opposed and they don’t need to be opposed. Ukraine’s freedom will make the West more secure. If Georgia can maintain its freedom, it is so important for counterbalancing Russia’s ability and China’s ability to dominate possession of natural resources and dominate the Black Sea therefore undermining America’s security and economy. I wonder if we’re at a point here where we can get beyond this very, very cruel but also stupid idea that you should split apart values and interests, that they’re antithetical.” 

Edward Lucas, a London-based former journalist and prospective parliamentary candidate in the 2024 British election, did, however, strike a note of caution:

• "There’s a kind of wishful magical thinking that it ought to be obvious to everybody that Georgia is at a geopolitical crossroads and therefore it’s in the vital interest of the West to intervene to keep it out of Russia’s clutches and make it the fulcrum of Euro-Atlantic security in the Caucasus. I do worry that we’re in danger of thinking that people like JD Vance will eventually see reason because reason is ultimately reasonable but they’re coming from a different place.”

The post How did 2024 reshape our world? From Damascus to Kyiv to Washington, our experts weigh in appeared first on Coda Story.

"I was trying to film, and the riot police officers just pushed me, and they forced me out and they tried to take away my camera. And this is not a rare thing anymore. It's very normal to just attack journalists," said Georgian journalist Mariam Nikuradze at the Coda-organized event “Georgia at the crossroads” on May 19.

The online discussion brought together a range of voices to examine the local dynamics and global significance of the unprecedented crackdown on dissent in Georgia. Speakers included:

• Anne Applebaum, historian (U.S.)
• Tornike Gordadze, political scientist and former minister (Georgia)
• Egor Kuroptev, political expert and media manager (Russia)
• Gia Japaridze, professor and academic (Georgia)
• Hanna Lubakova, journalist and researcher (Belarus)
• Peter Pomerantsev, author and journalist (U.K./U.S.)
• Tamara Arveladze, activist and founder of Shame Movement (Georgia)
• Mariam Nikuradze, journalist (Georgia)
• Nino Japiashvili, editor at Radio Tavisupleba (Georgia)
• Slobodan Djinovic, founding member of Otpor and founder of CANVAS (Serbia)

“Georgia at the crossroads” was organized in partnership with ZEG Fest, Stranger’s Guide and our local media partner in Tbilisi, Radio Tavisueba. Watch the recording of the full conversation below and stay tuned for more events like these in the future.

The post Georgia at the crossroads: Why the country’s mass protests matter far beyond its borders appeared first on Coda Story.

Saudi Arabia is far from the only country investing in soft power campaigns updated for the social media era. Chinese media companies acting as ambassadors to the government push content across Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms from more than 170 foreign bureaus. In Qatar, the Fashion Trust Arabia prize has brought fashion icons such as Naomi Campbell, Victoria Beckham and Alexander Wang to the small Gulf state, all of them uploading a trail of Instagram stories and social media posts.

The goal of these new soft power campaigns is exactly the same as when the term was coined in the 1990s by the American political scientist Joseph Nye, who wrote that “the best propaganda is not propaganda.”

And while repressive regimes are far from the only governments using “content creation,” fashion, cinema, sports, and other non-military means to assert influence, authoritarian leaders around the world are increasingly wielding soft power to unleash disinformation, expand business interests, and make new political alliances.

At Coda we’re looking at how soft power is used to forge new alliances from the Philippines where Russian disinformation has penetrated social media to Kazakhstan, where Steve Bannon courted new allies on the far-right and the far-left.

The post Soft Power: How nation-states buy influence appeared first on Coda Story.

Almost a decade ago, the U.S. National Academy of Scientists wrote a letter condemning “political assaults on scientists in general and on climate scientists in particular. All citizens should understand some basic scientific facts. There is always some uncertainty associated with scientific conclusions; science never absolutely proves anything.” 

As populism sweeps the globe, hostility towards scientists, climate campaigners and experts continues. 

The scientific establishment has become vulnerable to a wave of anti-reason. Donald Trump’s administration has attacked science more than 100 times since 2016, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. The government has buried its own studies exposing the effects of climate change and has withdrawn funding for conservation programs. Scientists, researchers, and engineers are forced to protest on the streets in the name of science

In the years since that letter was written, scientific research has been distorted, amplified, and weaponized into a tool to confuse, control, and suppress further discovery. 

Coda Story is investigating how science is being undermined every day by shadowy interests. We’re looking at who they are, how they operate, and who is funding them. Our coverage will also examine how their influence affects all of us. 

The post Weaponized doubt appeared first on Coda Story.

A number of political and business forces are at play, capitalizing on the growth of the wellness industry, seeking to exploit the most vulnerable and create mistrust between us and our healthcare systems.

Once a person makes an initial leap of bad faith – such as campaigning against vaccines – they are more likely to make another. “Bad ideas don’t happen in isolation,” says Dr David Grimes, a cancer researcher and vaccine advocate at Oxford University, explaining how conspiracy theorists and proponents of alternative health theories cross-pollinate online. “You have to find a way of nullifying mountains of evidence against your position.” 

The stakes have never been higher. Yet institutions, healthcare practitioners, and doctors are now afraid to post online about vaccines for fear they will be attacked for advocating for them.

“You start to really hate your job,” said Dr. Chad Herrman, a paediatrician in Pittsburg who was subjected to a virulent anti-vaccine campaign in 2017. “You go down this rabbit hole of insanity, it’s kind of like the five stages of grief: you go through anger, denial, bargaining. It’s physically and mentally exhausting.” 

As online platforms like Facebook and Instagram become ever more powerful centers for anti-science ideas to proliferate, Coda Story will examine the networks that seek to destroy trust, sow divisions, and profit from fear.

The post Pseudohealth appeared first on Coda Story.

Climate has become a polarizing debate about beliefs and identity as much as about science. Leaders have begun to seize on climate change to advance ideologically rooted positions. Many take the side of climate skeptics to win votes. Big industries have undermined public discourse by funneling millions into groups denying climate change, threatening decades of research and climate consensus. 

Meanwhile, we watch as forest fires ravage Australia and climate change denialism dominates the social media, as quick-spreading and uncontrollable as the flames themselves.

In 2019, more than 40,000 fires swept through the Amazon rainforest, which absorbs two million tons of CO2 per year. The fires filled many of Brazil’s cities with acrid smoke. Yet the country is presided over by Jair Bolsonaro, a president who called his government’s scientific research on the Amazon “lies.”

In July 2019, United Nations poverty and human rights expert Philip Alston warned of a “climate apartheid” where 120 million more people would be living in poverty by 2030 as a result of rising temperatures, threatening democracy, and human rights.

As the climate crisis begins to exceed scientific expectations, Coda Story will hold to account individuals, institutions, and companies who seek to undermine climate science for profit or political gain. We will also examine how those campaigns impact policy around the world. We’re also going to visit the most climate-ravaged parts of the earth to understand how populations are being directly affected by climate denialism.

The post Climate appeared first on Coda Story.

In Brazil, forest fires rage across the Amazon, burning vast swathes of the rainforest, presided over by a leader who believes climate change is a “Marxist plot.” In America, health-related misinformation has become an epidemic of its own. And in Europe, country after country is losing their hard-earned measles-free status as the anti-vax movement becomes more potent by the day.

Our new channel, War on Science, will tackle these issues deeply, with human-centered stories at the forefront. We’ll look at how these movements are created and allowed to thrive, examine how they affect policy, health and climate, and meet the people who are fighting back.

Access to all the knowledge we have ever gathered is at our fingertips. But that also means that once-fringe movements are coming to the center, and disinformation, pseudoscience, quackery and denialism are banding together to wage a war on what they call the “orthodoxy” of expertise, nullifying the mountains of evidence against their position.

As opposition to this war on science has mobilized, universities are devising strategies to cope with threats of research defunding. Dollars are pouring into organizations advocating for science in the public interest. And ordinary citizens are prepared to counter the assault on science.

“Journalists have a wealth of stories at their fingertips once they reject the notion that truth is subjective and start asking for evidence and digging into details,” wrote science advocate Shawn Lawrence Otto. “They especially have a wealth of stories at their fingertips when they start exploring how science is being intentionally misrepresented by vested interests.”

Coda’s new War on Science channel intends to bring subjectivity and evidence to investigate those vested interests who seek to misrepresent science.

The post War on Science appeared first on Coda Story.

Many of the protestors have worn t-shirts and wave banners that read: “20% of my country is occupied by Russia.”

In a five-day war in 2008 between Russia and Georgia, Russia took control of South Ossetia, a Georgian province in the country’s north.

Russian media have largely portrayed the protests as motivated by Russophobia. For many Georgians, however, Russian occupation and the country’s economic and political influence are viewed as the latest instances of colonialism and imperialism that begins with the Red Army invading an independent Georgia in 1921.

Photographer Tako Robakidze has spent more than a year with families who live along the South Ossetia line of control, a moving border that Georgians call a “creeping occupation” because the Russian military has continually pushed deeper into Georgian territory. What is it like to live under creeping occupation? This is the question Robakidze explores in “Creeping Borders.”

The project was produced with support by Magnum Foundation

The post Creeping Borders — Russia pushes deeper into Georgian territory appeared first on Coda Story.

Dima and Tanya are an unlikely couple in modern-day Kiev: Dima was formerly a leader of the city’s most powerful ultra-right movement, and Tanya is an ultra-left activist and self-proclaimed anarcho-feminist.

Together Dima and Tanya fight their own battles to reinvent themselves against a backdrop of violence, loss, and instability in post-Maidan Ukraine.

Hunted by members of Ukraine’s ultra-right movement and ostracized by friends and family, the couple fights the momentum of their pasts while standing together, back to back, in a courageous tale of love and self-discovery.

The post A Ukrainian Love Story appeared first on Coda Story.

Surveillance, privacy, information, control: Coda Story’s new coverage topic provides global reporting on how governments abuse the power and potential of emerging technologies such as AI, facial recognition, digital tracking, and social media and will explore how these technologies are strengthening autocratic regimes and stifling dissent.

The post Surveillance. Privacy. Information. Control. appeared first on Coda Story.

The links between the Kremlin’s disinformation ecosystem and the Philippines start at the St Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency (IRA), a state-sponsored troll farm, and unwind through a group of social media and news outlets managed by supporters of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

One of the most vivid examples of the cross-pollination of disinformation was the sudden and increased appearance early last year of a little-known global affairs expert on Philippine news sites that Rappler.com has linked to supporters of the Philippine president. Up until that point, the expert, a man named Adam Garrie, had a niche following as a frequent commentator on RT, the Russian state-sponsored broadcaster and several other Kremlin-linked media sites, but he had no known background in Filipino or Asian affairs.

Garrie’s unusual footprint on the Philippine media scene offers a strange and cautionary tale on how swiftly and stealthily Russia’s state-backed disinformation tactics can expand to unlikely places.

Garrie’s relationship with Kremlin-backed media was revealed in a research paper published by New Knowledge, a data company that investigated the Russian IRA and what it called the Kremlin’s “broader propaganda ecosystem.” The report, submitted to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, combined data submitted by Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s parent company Alphabet that consisted of text, videos, images, and other content linked to the IRA.

The report links Garrie to a site called GI Analytics, which is among the Russian propaganda pages most promoted by IRA advertising accounts on Facebook. Garrie also contributes to several other sites that New Knowledge describes as part of the Russian web of disinformation, including Russia Insider, The Duran, Geopolitica.ru, Mint Press News, Oriental Review, and globalresearch.ca.

Rappler sought comment from Garrie before publishing its article in late January, but received no response. After the article was published, Garrie posted to his Facebook page that he had no connection to the Russian government and he reiterated his support for Duterte.

Garrie is also cited as an expert source on at least three Russian-language news sites connected to IRA, according to an investigation conducted by the Russian-language news site RBC.

Separately, Garrie has been interviewed by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB)-affiliated Press TV, and RT (formerly Russia Today). IRIB is independent of the Iranian government but its head is appointed directly by the supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

The US Department of the Treasury in 2013 identified IRIB as a network that broadcast false reports and forced confessions of political detainees. In August 2018, Google deleted 58 accounts on YouTube, Google+, and Blogger that were involved in “politically motivated phishing.” The accounts had ties to IRIB.

RT was identified by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence in January 2017 as the primary source of propaganda that the Russians used to further their interests in the 2016 US elections.

After Pres. Duterte visited Moscow, the Philippine and Russian presidential communication offices forged a partnership in information dissemination. Disinformation followed.

Garrie popped up in Philippine media several months after President Duterte, accompanied by an entourage of spin doctors, visited Russia in May 2017.

During his trip to Moscow, the Philippine leader and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a number of national security agreements, including a deal on intelligence sharing and the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. They also discussed information strategy and training.

The Philippine delegation to Moscow included Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar; a former singer-dancer turned PCOO assistant secretary Mocha Uson, and pro-Duterte bloggers Rey Joseph Nieto and Carlos Munda, according to Rappler. Uson and Nieto, who runs the Thinking Pinoy website, anchor the network that attacks perceived government critics.

On May 30, 2017, state-run Philippine News Agency reported that the Philippine and Russian presidential communication offices were set to forge a partnership in information dissemination.

The agreement was signed in November, when Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev came to the Philippines for the ASEAN Summit. At that time, Russia and the Philippines also signed additional agreements, which included an “MOU on Cooperation in Mass Communications.”

Staff from the Philippine News Agency were also sent to Russia for training on information dissemination with news organization Sputnik.

The Daily Sentry, a Philippine news site, started citing Adam Garrie as a global expert after Philippine-Russian ties grew stronger. Until then, Garrie had been featured on RT and other pro-Moscow outlets, but few other sites.

At the start of 2018, a new Philippine news site emerged called The Daily Sentry. It’s ownership is unknown and not publicly disclosed, yet this obscure platform which says it publishes “news and current events” became the first Philippine outlet to publish Garrie’s views, according to Rappler.

Between February 2018 and January 2019, The Daily Sentry cited Garrie in 41% of posts on Facebook that mentioned experts, according to an analysis by Rappler.

Rappler requested comment from The Daily Sentry about its reasons for citing Garrie, but received no reply.

By March 2018, Garrie moved to mainstream Philippine outlets, including The Manila Times. The paper’s chairman emeritus, Dante Ang, is also President Duterte’s “special envoy for international public relations.”

In the same month, Sass Rogando Sassot, a top pro-Duterte social media personality, shared a link to a page from Eurasia Future, a think tank Garrie is affiliated with. The page featured an interview with Garrie by Rado Gatchalian, a Filipino living in Sydney who manages several pro-Duterte pages.

Meanwhile, outlets identified in the New Knowledge report as spreading Russian propaganda were increasingly being shared in 2018 by Philippine online groups and pages. Some sites linked to Duterte officials and supporters were part of this disinformation drive, exposing such views to millions of new people, according to Rappler.

One such example involved Duterte’s former assistant secretary in his presidential communications office who participated in the Moscow presidential visit. According to data compiled by Rappler, the former official shared content more than 500 times from a site called Trending News Portal, which described itself as a digital news outfit specializing in viral stories.

On January 11, 2019, Facebook took action against 220 Philippine Facebook pages and 29 Instagram accounts, including The Daily Sentry. Facebook said that the sites had violated its misrepresentation and spam policies.

Last month, the spread of Kremlin-linked disinformation in the Philippines also came to the attention of Facebook.

In January, the social media company took down 220 pages and 73 other Philippine accounts, saying they violated the company’s policies on misrepresentation and spam.

Included in the crackdown was The Daily Sentry’s Facebook page and pages of its affiliates, as well as the TNP page, which had more than 4.3 million followers, and accounts related to TNP’s parent company called TwinMark Media Enterprises.

Facebook’s actions may only be a drop in the ocean of the tide of Kremlin disinformation flooding the Philippines. As of early February, The Daily Sentry’s website was still active.

This article was originally published by Rappler and adapted by Coda Story for publication. 

The post How a Little-Known Pro-Kremlin Analyst Became a Philippine Expert Overnight appeared first on Coda Story.

Surveillance, privacy, information, control: Coda Story’s new coverage topic provides global reporting on how governments abuse the power and potential of emerging technologies such as AI, facial recognition, digital tracking, and social media and will explore how these technologies are strengthening autocratic regimes and stifling dissent.

The post Surveillance. Privacy. Information. Control. appeared first on Coda Story.

Russian influence on a pivotal national election. The far-right gaining ground, moderates on the back foot. Immigration and identity front and center in the political debate. Sound familiar?

In the past, German elections have always been a byword for moderation, where certain political norms — such as its lead role in Europe and close bond with the United States — were taken for granted. But this campaign has been different.

As Angela Merkel battles for a fourth term as German chancellor, she has been facing an onslaught of fake news and populist, often hate-filled, rhetoric - much of it disseminated through shadowy online channels that seem to lead back to Russia. The stakes are higher than ever, with Europe’s cohesion in doubt and many Germans wondering if they can still rely on a United States under President Donald Trump. Some now look to Merkel as the new “leader of the free world.”

In Coda Story’s second collaboration with Reveal, a program of The Center for Investigative Reporting, we look at how to identify this digital disinformation and where it comes from. Coda’s Ilan Greenberg meets with expert Ben Nimmo of the Atlantic Council at its conference in Warsaw to discuss Russia’s election meddling, as President Trump delivers his first major foreign policy speech a couple blocks away. And he visits Boris Reitschuster, a German journalist who had to leave his posting in Russia because of death threats.

In Berlin, Reischuster leads an effort to resist the Kremlin’s influence on the more than four million German citizens with Russian origins. Meanwhile, German cyber-experts and the media are concerned about a hack on the German Parliament. Many believe Russian agents are holding the stolen files and will spring a Fall surprise to undermine Merkel just as the nation goes to the polls.

But first, reporter Luisa Beck finds Beatrix von Storch, the leading candidate of Alternative für Deutschland (the AfD), a far-right political party that is on the cusp of entering the German parliament - something right-wing parties have tried and failed at many time since the end of World War II. The show also examines the story of Anas Modamani, one of hundreds of thousands of Syrians who took refuge in Germany. But he became the center of a political maelstrom when he took a selfie with Merkel as she visited his shelter. Thanks to disinformation and fake news Modamami was falsely accused of being a terrorist.

“The Rise of the German Right” will be broadcast on public radio stations across the United States. The full episode is available on The Center for Investigative Reporting’s website or as a download from iTunes.

Reveal is a weekly radio program produced by the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX. For more, check out their website.

The post The rise of the German right appeared first on Coda Story.

The post Dana Rohrabacher Defends Himself — and Putin — in Battle to Keep His House Seat appeared first on Coda Story.

With the midterms approaching, a former Cambridge Analytica insider says U.S. voters need to be aware how they are being micro-targeted all over again.

The post How Cambridge Analytica Did It appeared first on Coda Story.

The post Jailed for a Like: A family of ‘extremists’ appeared first on Coda Story.

There’s a surprise entrant among the thousands competing for America’s premier Internet awards this year: Russia and the campaign it denies being involved in to interfere in the 2016 U.S. elections.

The post Could The Kremlin Get An Award For Election Meddling? appeared first on Coda Story.

Some Russian commentators are calling it a scandal on a par with Airforce One being used to carry illegal narcotics, after the Argentinian police published photos of the suspect aircraft — which has previously had President Vladimir Putin as a passenger.

The Kremlin has lashed out at domestic media coverage of what’s been dubbed the “cocaine affair”, even denouncing some stories as “fake” — a label usually reserved for irksome reports in the foreign media. Ironically, the Russian government initially hailed its sting operation with the Argentinian authorities as a model of international cooperation when it was first revealed.

The story began with Argentinian police discovering suitcases stuffed with more than 850 pounds of cocaine inside the grounds of the Russian embassy in Buenos Aires in December, 2016. Diplomats there reportedly helped the Argentinian drugs squad in swapping out the cocaine for flour and planting GPS tracking devices in the cases. Russian police then arrested the recipients when the suitcases reached Moscow.

But last week, the Argentinian authorities published details of the sting, including photos of the suitcases being loaded onto a Russian government Ilyushin Il-96 aircraft, with its identifying number, 96023, clearly visible. A plane with the same number is part of a special flight detachment used for transporting top Kremlin officials including Putin, according to the Meduza website.

That revelation sparked a media frenzy, with journalists suggesting that Russian officials were involved in a lucrative conspiracy to ship drugs from South America to Moscow, using government aircraft.

The Kremlin has furiously denied that the plane in the Argentinian photos was a government jet, claiming that the number in the photographs had been digitally altered. But Argentinian law enforcement insists the photos are genuine, and that the same plane number appears in pictures in their case file.

The same plane was reportedly sighted this week in Bangkok according to one flight-tracking website, possibly carrying Nikolai Patrushev, the powerful head of Russia’s National Security Council.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has also hit out at reports that nine Russian diplomats possibly linked to the “cocaine affair” died from mysterious heart attacks between 2016 and 2017, and an allegation that the senior diplomat responsible for Latin America had been murdered. “Unfortunately, even those who are no longer with us are not spared in this information slaughter,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement reported by MediaZona.

But just weeks before Russians go to the polls for presidential elections, the story is not going away, with journalists asking how such a huge quantity of cocaine ended up in the embassy compound in the first place.

The media have named a Russian citizen living in Germany called Andrey Kovalchuk as the suspected ringleader of the cocaine smuggling operation. Through his lawyer, he has denied the allegations, saying that the suitcases contained cigars, coffee, and alcohol he had purchased and stored at the Russian embassy’s school in Buenos Aires ready to be forwarded on.

Someone must have slipped the drugs in there, his lawyer said, blaming American intelligence agents as part of a U.S. plot to discredit Russia’s diplomatic mission in Argentina.

The post Why Russia is crying ‘fake news’ about a drugs sting in Argentina appeared first on Coda Story.

The post How Two Russian Grandmothers Turned Into An Internet Sensation appeared first on Coda Story.

His son looks after the customer, who wants winter shoes. And then the Russian president appears on screen and Abu Muhammad raises his hands and says: “God bless you Putin!”

Russia’s military intervention in Syria’s grinding civil war — to keep President Bashar al-Assad and his repressive government in power — has had widespread attention. But almost un-noticed beyond Syria has been its parallel media offensive there, led by Kremlin-financed brand names like RT and Sputnik. And the signs are this “soft power” campaign is working, with these channels securing a growing audience in government territory, helping Russia gain a powerful hold on Syrian hearts and minds.

Wael, who runs a clothes store next to Abu Muhammad’s, comes in as the RT newscast continues. The half-hour bulletin typically features a mix of reports from Syria and the wider Middle East, along with a short news segment focusing on “Russian achievements.” It is a must-watch for Wael too. “If you want to know what is happening in Syria, you have to watch RT news,” Wael says. “Not the Syria ones, unfortunately.”

Abu Muhammad has been an avid fan of RT ever since President Vladimir Putin despatched his warplanes and troops to help Assad in 2015, rescuing his regime from collapse. Watching the channel is a way of thanking Russia for its help, he says. “They stood by the Syrian people in their war against terrorism.”

Some Syrians have shown their appreciation more directly, naming newborn sons after the Russian president. It was an “expression of friendship, love and thankfulness” for his assistance, said Nawras Mihoub, the father of one such “Putin” baby, in a carefully staged video earlier this year. The young Vladimir was covered with the Syrian flag. His father — who said he was a soldier — held the boy in front of a giant photograph of the Syrian leader adorned on one side by the Russian tricolor.

Relations between Damascus and Moscow go back to Soviet times, but they had ebbed in recent decades. The Kremlin’s decisive military intervention has given it a chance to cement its influence once more, now using its information machine to talk directly to Syrians. And Assad — indebted as he is to Putin for his support—has been a willing partner.

RT has been able to operate remarkably freely in a country that ranks lower on media freedom indexes even than Russia. The Syrian government helps RT reporters get swift access to frontline locations and other stories they want to cover.

This has all helped RT’s Arabic channel vault ahead with Syrian audiences since Russian forces intervened in the civil war. The channel has actually been going for a decade, and it used to be overshadowed by the regional heavyweights, Qatar-funded Al Jazeera and Saudi-funded Al Arabiya. But now RT has become the go-to station for many Syrians in government-controlled areas.

Since last year, it has been joined by Sputnik, a Kremlin-funded news agency, which produces a daily live one-hour show for Sham FM, one of Syria’s most popular radio stations. Broadcast from Moscow each day at 6 p.m., it features a mix of news and features and studio discussion, as well as a 20-minute “Military Monitor” segment covering the latest frontline developments, with an emphasis on Russian actions.

The aim of the show, according to a Syrian media report, is to transmit “the popular and official Russian position to the Syrian people and global public opinion.”

It is hard to get exact figures, but there is no doubt Sham FM reaches a wide audience in Syria, both on radio and via its Facebook page. Even the broken Arabic of the Russian presenters doesn’t put off Ahmad, a Damascus taxi driver who says he tunes in every day. “I like the power I feel listening to Russia’s standpoint,” he says, noting approvingly the broadcast’s typically anti-Western message.

Sputnik is pushing at an open door here. Syrian people have been fed a diet of anti-Western, anti “imperialist” propaganda by the ruling Ba’ath party for decades. It starts early on, with school-children chanting a Syrian version of the pledge of allegiance before lessons, promising “to confront Imperialism and Zionism.” The Kremlin is leveraging its military intervention to cement its influence, but using its information machine to talk directly to Syrians.

Back in his store in Al Hamra market, Abu Muhammad says RT is “more neutral and truthful” than Syrian channels. He speaks approvingly of the network’s reports on Russia’s humanitarian aid to Syrians fleeing “terrorists,” using the government’s catch-all term for those who have been fighting Assad since 2011. “I remember Russian soldiers giving beautiful gifts to hundreds of children in Aleppo at the beginning of this year,” says Abu Muhammad. “What kindness!”

Wael says he was hooked by the network’s coverage of Russian airstrikes last year which helped Syrian troops recapture the historic city of Palmyra from the self-styled Islamic State, or Daesh. He was impressed by how many reporters RT had in the field. His family are regular viewers too, he says, following RT’s output on Facebook and “contributing regularly to polls on the channel’s website.”

Not all Syrians in government-controlled areas are happy with Russia’s intervention. Some raise questions about its legitimacy, and the long-term price the country will have to pay for becoming so dependent on Moscow for its security. With the Syrian army now regaining territory nationwide with Russia’s help, you hear questions such as: “is Russia ever going to leave Syria?”

In the meantime, Russia’s influence in Syria is spreading. At government-organized rallies in Damascus, the Russian and Syrian flags are regularly flown together. Sometimes posters of Putin appear alongside the ubiquitous portraits of Assad. When the two leaders met recently in the Russian resort of Sochi, it was clear that Putin was the boss in this relationship as he declared the military mission “almost at an end.”

But the Syrian government has made clear it wants deeper ties with Moscow on all fronts.

This May, some Syrians even celebrated Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany, following a campaign by RT and other media outlets. Syrians were given St. George’s ribbons to display, a widely used Russian patriotic and military symbol, as well as flags. Walk the covered alleyways of the old souk in Damascus, and you’ll find a plentiful selection of mugs, magnets and other souvenirs bearing photos of the Russian and Syrian presidents together.

And it is not only “Vladimir Putin” that has been added to the list of possible names for Syrian children. An unknown number of baby girls are now growing up with the name “Elena” — the name of one of the regular spokespeople for Russia’s main military base in Syria. Its Facebook page has returned the favor, publishing photos of Syrian families with their new “Elena” babies.

The Kremlin may be on the defensive elsewhere in the world over its information operations, but in Syria it can already be well satisfied with its investment.

Abu Muhammad and his fellow shop owners are even starting to learn basic Russian. A few Russian customers have been shopping in Damascus markets, and they are hoping their numbers will increase. “Speaking Russian is also a sign of gratitude to Russia,” says Abu Muhammad. “I am encouraging my children to learn it too.”

 All names in this article were changed at the request of the interviewees.

Coda is not naming our reporter in Damascus for security reasons.

The post The Russian offensive in Syria you haven’t heard about appeared first on Coda Story.

The post How Russia Weaponized Primetime appeared first on Coda Story.

Lyzgin is not a political activist, but a car-mechanic from the Urals city of Perm, far from Moscow. But just a few months after making the post on Vkontakte, he was charged with “intentionally” spreading false information about the Soviet Union, and then last year convicted and fined 200,000 rubles (about $3,000 at the time).

He refused to pay the fine and fled Russia — but the authorities had made their point. There is only their version of history, and that means inconvenient facts like Stalin and Hitler’s collaboration in the early stages of WWII — through the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact — cannot be repeated in Russia.

The mechanic was the first Russian to be found guilty under a series of new laws aimed at combatting “extremism and terrorism” online, which in practice allow the Kremlin to control what Russians are told about their past.

Nicknamed the “Yarova laws” after the deputy who authored it, the legislation is worded so vaguely, critics have warned, that it could snare virtually anyone. That may be the point. Even someone who had been with Lyzgin as he posted the article could potentially have been arrested — for not reporting the “crime.”

If Vladimir Putin’s first two terms as president were defined by efforts to control the present — bringing Russia’s mainstream media under Kremlin control — his third term has been about entrenching control of the past.

Dmitry Medvedev’s term as president, when he swapped places with Putin, now looks like a false spring. “Nothing can be valued above human life, and there is no excuse for repressions,” Medvedev said in 2009, as he ordered funds for monuments to the victims of Soviet-era abuses.

As Putin prepares to run for a fourth term next year, the Kremlin is encouraging and in some cases directly funding the construction of monuments for figures such as Vladimir the Great, who made Orthodox Christianity the state religion, Joseph Stalin and Ivan the Terrible — best known for murdering his son.

Those trying to tell more balanced narratives have been progressively neutered. Memorial, an NGO dedicated to documenting Soviet repressions, was declared a foreign agent last year, while Putin has brought the Federal Archive Agency directly under his control.

And the Kremlin’s tactics seem to be working. The number of Russians who believe that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is a “fabrication” has nearly doubled in recent years, according to a survey by one leading pollster, while close to 40 percent said they had never even heard of it.

So why does the Kremlin care so much about the past these days? And how far is it prepared to go to enshrine its version of history?

Coda is going to try these questions in this new current, “Rewriting History,” so please follow to find out.

The post Rewriting history: why the Kremlin is on a drive for new statues appeared first on Coda Story.

The post How Russia is Trying to Redress North Korea’s image appeared first on Coda Story.

The post Clash of Narratives: A Tale of Two Georgias appeared first on Coda Story.

The post Bart’s Story: Life as a Transgender Man Living in Conservative Georgia appeared first on Coda Story.

The post Clash of Narratives: A Tale of Two Georgias appeared first on Coda Story.

The post Clash of Narratives: A Tale of Two Georgias appeared first on Coda Story.

- Вань, а ты знаешь, кто такой Иван Грозный, твой тезка? Уже проходили в школе? — спрашиваю я сына своей подруги, 11-летнего школьника. Мы сидим с ним на полу и собираем детский стульчик для его младшего брата Петра, тезки другого великого русского царя.

- Да, - отвечает Ваня. - Он сына своего убил, потому что у него с женой проблемы были. Или не с женой. Не помню. В общем, сына он убил. И был несчастный. У него жизнь непростая была. Царь же! – рассуждает Ваня, вкручивая винт в ножку стула. – Еще он что-то завоевал.

- А что он Орел основал, не рассказывали в школе?

- Какой орел? – отрывается от дела Ваня и улыбается – Птицу что ли?

- Нет, город такой старый есть, крепость.

- Не, не знаю, - он теряет интерес и берется вкручивать винт в следующую ножку.

- Ему там памятник поставили, в Орле, - продолжаю я. - Говорят, он его и основал, хотя нет тому доказательств. Как думаешь, хорошо это? Таким правителям памятники ставить?

Ваня смотрит на меня так, словно я задала ему самый глупый в мире вопрос.

- Памятники не ставят просто так! Разрежь лучше ножиком вот эту штуку.

И Ваня просит вскрыть следующую упаковку с деталями.

Памятники, действительно, не ставят просто так. О том, что первый в России памятник царю Ивану Грозному появится в городе Орел власти региона сообщили в июне этого года, накануне празднования 450-й годовщины его основания. Губернатор области на одной из пресс-конференций тогда заявил: «Иван Грозный является основателем города Орла – по его указу этот город здесь появился. Не буду вдаваться в исторические подробности, но я считаю, что если мы этот памятник установим, это будет очень хорошее дело. Все-таки такой русский царь, собиратель земель русских – так о нем говорили».

По словам властей, памятник царю должен был быть установлен уже в конце августа. Но сделать это им помешали представители местной интеллигенции и оппозиции. Они развернули активную кампанию против Грозного в городе. И вот почему.

Царя Ивана Васильевича (Ивана IV) прозвали «Грозным» не случайно. Он правил страной 54 года - с 1530 до 1584. В итоге его агрессивной внешней политику территория Руси увеличилась почти вдвое. Страна впервые стала больше Европы по площади.

Современники отзывались о самодержце, как о жестоком тиране. Иван IV официально считается убийцей своего сына Ивана. Многие ученые придерживаются версии, что наследник трона получил смертельный удар по голове, когда защищал от разъярённого отца свою беременную жену. Её, пишут историки, царь избил за неподобающий внешний вид с такой силой, что у нее случился выкидыш.

Иван Грозный впервые в истории страны провел политические репрессии т и ввел так называемую «опричнину». Суть ее заключалась в конфискации имущества и земель у представителей высших сословий в пользу государства. Неугодных депортировали в дальние губернии. Примерно по такой же схеме потом пройдут и репрессии Сталина. Боярские фамилии, попавшие в годы опричнины Грозного в опалу, вырезались целыми семьями, включая женщин и маленьких детей. Был составлен специальный список опальных родов. «Зимой 1569-1570 годов во время новгородского похода только в одном селе Медном «отделано» (то есть убито) «с женами и детьми» 190 депортированных псковичей, а в Торжке — 30 человек, - рассказывает старший научный сотрудник Института всеобщей истории Российской Академии Наук Владислав Назаров.

В этом интервью изданию Lenta.ru авторитетный историк объясняет и главное: тиран и деспот Иван Грозный основателем Орла не был. И вряд ли даже знал о существовании такой крепости. Просто тогда все важные документы делались «за подписью царя». В том числе - и об учреждении населенных пунктов. С таким же успехом, говорит историк, можно ставить памятники Грозному еще в паре десятков городов, заложенных в его правление: «На самом деле царь Иван Васильевич вряд ли имел к основанию Орла прямое отношение. Скорее всего, эта небольшая крепость была основана по распоряжению (но «именем царя») руководителей местной думы – трех бояр».

Опираясь на эти аргументы, орловские общественники считают, что власти просто подменили понятия. И памятник ставят не Грозному – основателю города, а Грозному – тирану и деспоту. По их же информации, идея его установления принадлежит не местным властям, а исходит из Москвы, конкретнее от Фонда Славянской письменности. Отказаться от этого губернатор области просто не мог, говорит орловский писатель Владимир Ермаков, поэтому он так активно и тиражировал версию, что Грозный основал город. Это хоть как-то оправдывало появление памятника.

Таким образом, продолжает Ермаков, «если мы соглашаемся с этим памятником, это значит, мы соглашаемся с тем, что свободомыслие в России не имеет никакого влияния», «Ставить на худшие образцы самодержавия, возводить эти идолы вместо идеалов, на которых можно построить нечто открытое и свободное для наших детей, по меньшей мере странно».

Владимир Ермаков вместе с другими противниками памятника провел не одну акцию протеста в городе. Они собирали и подписи против монумента, но получилось не много. Большинство горожан просто не знают или не помнят, кто такой Грозный и что такое «опричный террор». Хотя своим просветительским протестом активистам удалось в итоге отменить установку памятника. Власти взяли тайм-аут после нескольких акций протеста и не открыли, как обещали, в августе, скандальный монумент.

Вместо этого местные власти начали публиковать материалы в подконтрольных им СМИ о царе Иване Грозном, основателе города и собирателе земель русских. А губернатор области Вадим Потомский дал большую пресс-конференцию в Москве, в крупнейшем информационном агентстве страны ИТАР-ТАСС. На всю страну он снова пытался оправдать Ивана Грозного.

Потомский утверждает, что никакого убийства сына не было, просто, как следует из исторических архивных данных, Иван Грозный однажды произнес фразу: «Я виновен в смерти своего сына, потому что вовремя не отдал его лекарям». Это, мол, было сказано, когда они ехали из Петербурга в Москву и в дороге царевич заболел.

Версия вроде складная, если не считать одной детали - Санкт-Петербурга тогда на Руси не было. Город построят спустя почти 200 лет после Ивана Грозного.

На той же пресс-конференции губернатор с завидным пафосом заявил, что никому не позволено переписывать историю России. Справедливости ради надо отметить, что оправдывать опричный террор царя Ивана Грозного он не стал. Надо полагать, в интересах собственной репутации.

Никто не обвинил Вадима Потомского в некомпетентности и необразованности за такую альтернативную историю России. СМИ растиражировали эту историю и никто не услышал жалобы противников памятника федеральным властям.

9 из 10 прохожих на улицах Орла, с кем нам удалось поговорить, ничего против памятника тирану Ивану Грозному в центре их города действительно не имеют. Трое оправдывают его появление тем, что «по телевизору говорили, что Грозный основатель города», остальные считают, что он был действительно великим правителем, который расширил границы Руси и сделал страну великой, а террор опричнины, что поделать, с кем из царей не бывает.

Монумент Грозному начали устанавливать в начале осени. И помпезно открыли 14 октября этого года. При поддержке федеральных властей. Церемонию сделали в старо-русском стиле. На сцене перед памятником танцевали народные танцы, верующие развернули хоругви и принесли иконы. А когда приглашенный священник освящал монумент, православные вдруг запели гимн Российской империи «Боже царя храни», который как к Орлу, так и к Ивану Грозному не имеет никакого отношения. Музыка стала имперским гимном через 400 лет после смерти тирана.

Приглашенные министры образования и культуры Ольга Васильева и Владимир Мединский на церемонию не приехали. Правда, последний все же прислал свое приветственное слово. Вместо них памятник открывали сам губернатор, Вадим Потомский, представители православной церкви и лидер одиозного провластного националистического байкер-клуба «Ночные Волки» - Александр Залдостанов, по прозвищу Хирург. Он называет себя «другом Владимира Путина» и был награжден Орденом почета за акции в поддержку Кремля.

В своей праздничной речи губернатор Потомский назвал противников памятника «врагами» и приписал Ивану Грозному не то что, основание Орла, - содействие советским войскам в победе над фашизмом, например. А потом и вовсе сравнил деспотичного владыку с нынешним президентом России Владимиром Путиным. Все это участники церемонии встретили аплодисментами:

«Он сделал так, что мы с вами живем в великом городе Орле, - надрывался в микрофон Вадим Потомский, - Именно здесь в 1943-м году, именно здесь, на Орловско-Курской дуге сломали хребет немецкому солдату и погнали его восвояси. И это было тоже его, Грозного, провидение! И какие бы враги нам не мешали делать такие поступки, ставить памятник первому русскому царю, мы никогда не склонимся и не поддадимся! Мы великий русский народ у нас великий самый мощный президент (Путин), который заставил весь мир уважать Россию и с нами считаться, как это в свое время сделал Иван Васильевич Грозный! С Богом!»

Противники памятника теперь пытаются добиться его сноса. Через суд. За исторический подлог в России нет юридической ответственности, а вот за нарушение исторических памятников - есть. В старых городских архивах они нашли документы, которые подтверждают, что Ивана Грозного власти, оказывается, поставили в охраняемой от застройки исторической части города. Процесс сейчас идет. Автор иска, Юрий Милютин говорит, не ждет положительного решения суда, но попробовать стоит: «Единственный способ унять зарвавшихся губернаторов – это подать на них в суд, чтобы привлечь их к ответственности, что я и сделал».

Политолог Федор Крашенинников уверен, что власти в Орле установили памятник не столько Ивану Грозному, сколько идее сильной центральной власти и сильного государства. Этот приём он называет «монументальной пропагандой» и говорит, что его истоки надо искать в идеологической политике СССР:

«В России еще с советских времен полностью извращена концепция установки памятников. При советской власти была концепция монументальной пропаганды, она возрождается и сейчас. Власть ищет персонажей очень далеких по времени от нашей реальности и ставит памятники не столько им, сколько идее великодержавности».

Он добавляет, что региональные власти в Орле скорее всего просто хотели выслужиться перед центром таким способом: «Надо четко понимать, что памятник Ивану Грозному в Орле это не ему памятник, а памятник великодержавию и вот той выдуманной России, концепцию которой сейчас очень щедро подает наша власть нашему населению. У нас все сводится к тому, что хорошее это то, что служит единому государству, любая попытка жить отдельно и иметь автономию это отвратительно, это надо подавлять, кровью в том числе. Этим занимался и Иван Грозный. Это делается для того, чтобы создать у людей, у обывателя ощущение, что вот так было всегда. Что вот Россия всегда была вот такой, как сейчас о ней рассказывают».

В обществе памяти жертв политических репрессий тоже говорят, что установка таких памятников - это тренд. Созданный центром. В России за последние три года уже установлены несколько памятников Сталину, не без тревоги говорит мне председатель Екатеринбургского общества «Мемориал» Анна Пастухова. «Прежде всего, мне кажется, что это запрос власти на оправдание абсолютизма и насилия, как системы государственного управления. Когда такие символы, олицетворяющие деспотизм и диктатуру, как памятник Грозному, например, или Сталину появляются в среде, где мы живем, обыватель начинает привыкать, что это норма, когда мы равняемся на такие примеры. Более того, у общества сейчас есть на это запрос, чтобы власть была жесткой и даже жестокой в оправдание какого-то мнимого величия страны!»

Практически сразу после открытия памятника Грозному в Орле в администрацию Санкт-Петербурга поступило заявление от малоизвестной организации «Национальный комитет 60+». Активисты просят назвать одну из улиц города именем царя. Они обосновывают свое предложение тем, что Грозный в свое время находился на территории современного Петербурга. «Иван Васильевич после подавления мятежа новгородских, прозападных сепаратистов отправился в Дудоровский погост Водской пятины бывшей Новгородской республики», - утверждают члены комитета. Быть ли в Петербурге «грозной» улице власти сейчас решают.

Но уже известно, что в России появится следующий монумент Ивану Грозному. Его откроют весной 2017-го в городе Александрове – здесь царь Иван любил часто бывать. С этим историки спорить не стали. Камень в основание нового памятника уже заложен.

А к Грозному в Орле регулярно приезжают экскурсии. И школьников в том числе.

The post Иван Великий: подтасовка истории в угоду новой империи appeared first on Coda Story.

The post Fear and Loathing: The Migrant Backlash appeared first on Coda Story.

The post Geopolitical Ruptures: The Migration Earthquake appeared first on Coda Story.