{"id":4402,"date":"2025-09-25T10:25:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/russia-launches-propaganda-drive-to-mask-economic-weakness\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T05:19:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T05:19:36","slug":"russia-launches-propaganda-drive-to-mask-economic-weakness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/russia-launches-propaganda-drive-to-mask-economic-weakness\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia launches propaganda drive to mask economic weakness"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
<\/figure>\n

By Isabella Egerton<\/em><\/p>\n

Russia has launched an extensive information campaign to disguise its economic vulnerabilities, following US President Donald Trump\u2019s description of the country as a \u201cpaper tiger\u201d and his suggestion that Ukraine could reclaim occupied territory with Western backing.<\/p>\n

A report released by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said\u00a0the Kremlin\u2019s messaging has coalesced around three themes: restating its original war aims as necessary for Russian security, portraying Russian victory as inevitable, and highlighting the supposed benefits of renewed US\u2013Russia economic ties. ISW assessed that Moscow is also dangling trade incentives to coax Washington toward normalising ties while continuing the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov rejected Trump\u2019s description, declaring Russia is \u201cmore closely associated with a bear\u201d and insisting \u201cthere are no paper bears.\u201d He dismissed Trump\u2019s claim that Ukraine could retake ground, arguing Kyiv\u2019s military position is now significantly worse than in spring 2022 and warning that Ukraine\u2019s refusal to negotiate only weakens it further.<\/p>\n

Peskov also claimed Vladimir Putin was open to a settlement process but only on Moscow\u2019s terms, which remain unchanged from the demands issued in late 2021 and February 2022. He brushed aside the prospect of a meeting between Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, calling such talks a \u201cpublic relations stunt doomed to fail\u201d without extensive preparation.<\/p>\n

To reinforce the narrative, Peskov insisted the war was not \u201caimless\u201d but intended to eliminate what Russia calls its \u201croot causes\u201d \u2014 NATO\u2019s eastward expansion and alleged discrimination against Russian speakers in Ukraine. He further claimed there is a surge of volunteers joining the military, enough to fully staff all units, and that the Russian economy is \u201cfully meeting the military\u2019s needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other senior officials echoed the line. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia\u2019s Security Council, accused Trump of living in an \u201calternate reality,\u201d while Russian Direct Investment Fund chief Kirill Dmitriev declared that Russia\u2019s economy was outperforming those of the US, EU and UK.<\/p>\n

Behind the rhetoric, ISW noted,\u00a0Russia\u2019s economy remains under strain: soaring defence spending and a ballooning budget deficit have forced higher taxes on ordinary citizens, while Ukrainian drone strikes on oil facilities have disrupted fuel supplies. Sanctions have been partly offset by new trade channels, but structural weaknesses persist.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s more assertive pro-Ukraine stance, shaped by intelligence highlighting Russia\u2019s battlefield and economic vulnerabilities, has rattled Moscow. The Kremlin\u2019s information drive is an attempt to counter that perception, conceal its weaknesses, and convince the West that further support for Kyiv is futile.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Isabella Egerton Russia has launched an extensive information campaign to disguise its economic vulnerabilities, following US President Donald Trump\u2019s description of the country as a \u201cpaper tiger\u201d and his suggestion that Ukraine could reclaim occupied territory with Western backing. A report released by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said\u00a0the Kremlin\u2019s messaging<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4404,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4402\/revisions\/4404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}