This week, in a striking demonstration of reality denial, we have witnessed pro-Kremlin sources pushing two contradictory narratives about North Korean troops in Kursk region(opens in a new tab)claiming they do not exist at all, while simultaneously arguing their presence is merely a Western fabrication to justify NATO involvement.

Tuesday, 5 November, marked the end of the US presidential elections cycle with the Republican candidate Donald J. Trump winning the election(opens in a new tab). As we have reported before, Russian state-controlled outlets and other pro-Kremlin disinformation actors attempted to interfere with the elections with multi-pronged influence attempts – a pro-Kremlin tactic that we have come to know far too well.

Reject the reality and substitute it with your own

The Kremlin mental gymnastics about North Korea are a response to mounting evidence from multiple intelligence services confirming that the DPRK has sent around 10-12,000 troops to support Russia’s war effort.

The deployment has been independently verified by Ukrainian intelligence(opens in a new tab), the European Intelligence Centre (INTCEN)(opens in a new tab), the US Department of Defense(opens in a new tab), and South Korea’s National Intelligence Service(opens in a new tab), with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte confirming(opens in a new tab) earlier that some North Korean forces have already moved closer to Ukraine’s borders.

Financial Stress Index in Ukraine Lowest Since February 2022
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Financial Stress Index in Ukraine Lowest Since February 2022

Though the index has reached a low point for the last 34 months, Ukrainian financial stress is still higher than before Russia’s full-scale invasion as wartime risks dominate its economic reality.

To have a cake and eat it too

What makes this disinformation effort particularly noteworthy is how it reveals the Kremlin’s propaganda machine trying to have it both ways.

On one hand, pro-Kremlin sources dismiss reports of North Korean troops as a CIA manipulation and claim foreign troops would only hinder Russia’s ‘perfectly coordinated fighting machine’. On the other hand, they are simultaneously pushing a narrative that claims Western statements about North Korean support are merely attempts to retroactively justify NATO troops’ presence in Ukraine – despite there being no NATO troops on the frontline.

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This contradiction exposes a key feature in Russian information warfare: when reality becomes impossible to deny, they often resort to throwing multiple contradictory narratives at the wall, hoping at least one will stick with their target audiences.

Of course, it also looks a bit odd when ‘the greatest military in the world’, as the pro-Kremlin outlets like to hyperbolise the Russian army, needs to plead for help from an international pariah and one of the most impoverished nations(opens in a new tab) on the planet. Hence, Moscow also deployed an inverted reality to explain this conundrum by simply claiming that Russia is helping the DPRK(opens in a new tab), not the other way around.

Caught with their hands in the cookie jar

Russian state-controlled and other pro-Kremlin outlets deployed multi-pronged influence attempts targeting the 2024 US presidential election through FIMI (Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference) activities.

According to official US sources, these attempts involved, for example, manufactured videos falsely depicting voter fraud(opens in a new tab)bomb threats(opens in a new tab) that temporarily disrupted voting at twelve Georgia polling places in predominantly African-American neighbourhoods, and a ‘Doppelganger’ campaign(opens in a new tab) which created sophisticated clone websites impersonating legitimate US media outlets.

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It sounds all too familiar

The tactics included, among others, AI-generated content, coordinated inauthentic social media accounts, and multi-stage URL redirections to evade platform restrictions. Russian influence actors also exploited US domestic issues like Hurricane Helene to sow division, claiming that aid to Ukraine displaced hurricane relief efforts. These attempts relied heavily on ‘flooding’ tactics to push particular narratives, including deep state conspiracy theories, into the information space while attempting to erode public trust in US democratic institutions and candidates.

The Russian interference in the 2024 US presidential election follows a pattern observed earlier in the European Parliament elections, and votes in Moldova and Georgia. Similar tactics were used across these elections: smearing the candidates, flooding the information space with falsehoods, exploiting existing societal divisions, orchestrating coordinated inauthentic behaviour on social media, and attempting to erode trust in democratic institutions.

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More instances of pro-Kremlin disinformation making us shake our heads this week:

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