The US-Led West’s Information Terrorism Campaign Has Collapsed Without A Shot

By Andrew Korybko

The info-terrorism campaign that was launched not just against Russia and even the US-led West’s Ukrainian ‘allies’ but also against the entire global public largely succeeded in manipulating popular opinion against Moscow by misportraying this crisis as being over nothing more than a sliver of deindustrialized and war-torn territory along the Ukrainian border.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov condemned what he accurately described as the US-led West’s “information terrorism” campaign falsely fearmongering about a so-called “Russian invasion of Ukraine”. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had earlier declared on Facebook that same day that “15 February 2022 will go down in history as the day Western war propaganda failed. They are shamed and destroyed without firing a single shot.” Both comments were presumably in response to the Russian Defence Ministry announcing that many of its troops were returning to their barracks as planned following the impending completion of military drills in their country and Belarus.

This development debunked the US-led West’s info-terrorism campaign alleging that Russia will “invade” Ukraine the day after on 16 February. Zakharova still warned the day prior that “independent actors” (a presumable reference to mercenaries) might stage provocations in Eastern Ukraine, which Russian Permanent Representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said would “provoke” his country into responding, especially “if they start blatantly killing Russian citizens anywhere – Donbass or wherever”, let alone in Russia itself. These statements came after Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu the evening prior and declared that he’s committed to diplomacy.

That was always the case since it was no one other than the US-led West through its info-terrorism campaign that misportrayed the current crisis as a Russian-Ukrainian one when it’s actually an undeclared US–provoked missile crisis in Europe. Russia’s security guarantee requests to halt NATO’s eastward expansion, stop the deployment of strike weapons near its borders, and return to the regional military status quo agreed to by the now-defunct 1997 Russia-NATO Founding Act essentially amount to a revision of Europe’s security architecture to avert the US’ gradual erosion of Russia’s nuclear second-strike capabilities.

Alas, the info-terrorism campaign that was launched not just against Russia and even the US-led West’s Ukrainian “allies” but also against the entire global public largely succeeded in manipulating popular opinion against Moscow by misportraying this crisis as being over nothing more than a sliver of deindustrialized and war-torn territory along the Ukrainian border. To be sure, Russia remains committed to having Ukraine implement the UNSC-backed Minsk Accords because Moscow believes that Kiev’s initiation of a third round of civil war hostilities could serve as the pretext for the US to deploy strike weapons – including hypersonic ones – to the region.

That explains why Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov demurred when asked by a reporter whether President Putin will agree to recognize the self-proclaimed Donbass Republics following the Duma’s request to for him do so. He reminded everyone that Russia supports those agreements to the letter, which includes acknowledging those breakaway territories as part of Ukraine, albeit with future autonomy (the details of which remain the subject of dispute with Kiev). The US-led West’s info-terrorism campaign convinced many to believe that Russia was salivating to “occupy” not only those regions but even all of Ukraine itself, neither of which were ever on the Kremlin’s agenda.

After all, the undeclared US-provoked missile crisis in Europe can’t realistically be settled by a so-called “full-fledged invasion of Ukraine” since the issue at stake is the deployment of US strategic weapons, not that neighbouring country’s conventional military potential. If anything, Russia’s sovereign right to stage military exercises within its border and that of its Belarusian mutual defence ally might have served to sober up the US’ European NATO allies to the point of realizing that it’s of the utmost urgency to seriously consider Moscow’s security guarantee proposals lest the worst-case scenario of a Russian-NATO/-US war break out if the latter ever cross the Kremlin’s national security red lines.

Lavrov also applauded the US and NATO for finally taking some of Russia’s security guarantee requests seriously when saying that “The swiftness with which NATO has changed its position suggests that not everything is lost in relations with this bloc; [It indicates] that they can admit the obvious when they really want it.” That reinforces Russia’s official commitment to diplomacy from President Putin’s meetings yesterday with Lavrov and Shoigu that Peskov also confirmed following their talks. This stands in stark contrast to how many in the Alt-Media Community (AMC) interpreted the latest rounds of diplomacy between Russia and the West. Evidently, all wasn’t as it seemed to be.

Info-terrorism also corrupted those in the AMC who were practically convinced that Russia would “attack” Ukraine exactly as the US-led Western Mainstream Media (MSM) falsely predicted. In their minds, that wouldn’t have been a bad thing like the MSM would have considered it to be but something “good” that Ukraine would “deserve”. Some even went further by casually posting on social media about Russia’s willingness to launch nuclear-armed hypersonic weapons against the West. Everyone’s entitled to their own views, of course, but those assessments were clearly inaccurate following what just happened today and notwithstanding a (possibly mercenary-initiated) provocation in the coming days.

Even then, however, it’s extremely unlikely that Russia will nuke the West like both the MSM and many in the AMC curiously almost seem to want at this point, each for different ideological reasons. NATO countries already withdrew their military forces from Ukraine after seemingly believing their own info-terrorism narrative and thus showed how unreliable they are as Kiev’s “allies”. That was objectively the best decision though in order to avoid any accidental clashes with Russia on the off chance that it actually launched a “full-fledged invasion” despite the author already explaining why that’s unlikely.

Lies that are repeated frequently enough tend to manipulate popular perceptions to the point where even many sceptics begin to consider whether there’s some truth to them even if none indeed exists. Zakharova was right in declaring that the US-led West’s war propaganda failed on Tuesday, which surprised both opponents and even many supporters of Russia alike. Info-terrorism is extremely pernicious and serves as the vanguard of most Hybrid Wars. It appeals to expectations, both naturally occurring and artificially manufactured, to manipulate perceptions for geostrategic reasons.

The most effective defence for countering info-terrorism is proper media literacy that enables one to assess the difference between facts, fiction, and opinions that mix those two. Everyone should aspire to enhance their respective capabilities in order to avoid being misled by the next round of info-terrorism that might either once again be launched against Russia or perhaps China and/or Iran. No one should feel ashamed for falling for the latest campaign since it was so masterfully waged despite ultimately failing, but hopefully this will be a learning experience for those in the AMC who regrettably did.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Voice of East.

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Categories: Analysis, Geopolitics, International Affairs

Tags: Geopolitics, Russia, Ukraine, USA