Disinformation in Bulgaria USA and NATO portrait as seeking world domination through military and political aggression

It is a complex narrative, which persists in different contexts and back- grounds, accommodating a series of other linked propaganda sub-narratives, e.g.:

• US/NATO aggression against Russia is part of a decades-long policy to impose US hegemony, part of which are the US-induced wars in Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.
• From unipolar to multipolar world – After the collapse of the USSR, the world had become unipolar and for decades the US was the sole hegemon, but in recent years, the recovery of Russia and the rise of China and India (and in some articles, Turkey), has led to the formation of a multipolar world in which Russia and China are becoming the centers against the US/NATO/West attempts to maintain US hegemony.
• The economic and political power of the US/West is declining (also related to the shift from a unipolar to a multipolar world).
• There is a continuous hybrid/propaganda war against Russia, which covers various claims – from distorted presentation of what is happening in Russia to false claims about preparations for invasion of Ukraine.
• Ukraine’s and the US’ attempts to stop Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline are unsuccessful and are provoked on the one hand by a desire to prevent economic cooperation between Russia and Europe, and on the other hand serve to create domestic political legitimacy for the Ukrainian government.
• The guarantees for new security infrastructure in Europe, proposed by Kremlin are reasonable, but the US/NATO will reject them and turn them into a pretext for aggression against Russia.
• US/NATO actions continuously increase tensions around Ukraine, including “surrounding Ukraine” with military bases, increasing military presence in neighboring countries, and deploying weapons. Russia is forced to react, including by creating defence capabilities and developing military technologies.
• The US/NATO/West is breaking the promise made to Russia in 1991 that NATO will not expand eastwards.
• The methods and means for penetration and spread of the “USA/NATO seeks world domination” narrative differ from media to media, depending on the degree of pro-Kremlin bias in the general editorial policy, the type of media – tabloid- or broadsheet-alike web-sites, and how the media supervises the publication of new content. Three groups of media could be outlined – media with clear pro-Kremlin positions, media that balance between pro-Kremlin and neutral opinions and media that do not proliferate pro-Kremlin propaganda. Some of the ways, in which disinformation is penetrating the media are similar among all three groups, but there are two key differences. The first of them refers to the number of published articles that could be attributed to disinformation and propaganda. Even media that try not to proliferate Kremlin’s propaganda could publish individual articles that contains disinformation narratives. The second difference is theintentional use of disinformation techniques, such as appeal to authority, causal oversimplification, misrepresentation of someone’s opinion, etc. These techniques are used only by the first two groups of media and respectively, much more often by the pro-Kremlin media than the ones that balance between pro-Kremlin and neutral positions.

When looking at the group of media, that balance the pro-Kremlin with neutral positions and the group, which tries not to proliferate pro-Kremlin stance, the most widespread way for disinformation and propaganda to penetrate the media is the publication of one-sided article, without editorial comment or presentation of alternative points of view. An example is the statement by the head of Russian foreign intelligence that Russia’s plans to invade Ukraine are “malicious American propaganda” (reported in fakti.bg, banker.bg, glasove.com, no- vini.bg, bta.bg on 28.11.2021). The same case was observed in Focus News, which in its article “Kremlin: NATO expansion in Ukraine crosses Vladimir Pu- tin’s red line” conveyed without comment the words of the Kremlin spokesman. In some cases, the media outlet published a note stating that the piece was “presented without editorial interference and express solely the opinion of the author” which, however, gives no insight into the alternative points of view. (e.g. “Politika” (Serbia): Verbal case from Racak to Srebrenica, Focus News, 28.07.2021; SCMP: US does not want peace, but world domination, Focus News, 09.05. 2021) In other cases, however, the translation of foreign material presenting only pro-Kremlin positions is not accompanied by this note, which still could allow the careful reader to understand that is being served one-sided information (e.g. “Le Devoir (Canada). Russian-Chinese ties as a guarantee for global strategic balance”, Focus News, 26.05.2021)