Amid Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine and geopolitical confrontation with the West, the Kremlin is taking efforts to strengthen its influence in Kazakhstan, Moldova, other countries of Central Asia, and in the South Caucasus. For this purpose, Russia has launched information campaigns using various news agencies and Internet platforms to disseminate Moscow’s narrative in the information space of these countries.
One of such platforms is Rhythm of Eurasia (www.ritmeurasia.ru), which, in the interests of the Kremlin, publishes materials discrediting the official authorities of Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova, and the Baltic countries, and also reports on alleged manifestations of Russophobia, the growth of nationalism and discrimination against the Slavic population in these countries.
For example, the ongoing economic reforms and political course of the President of Kazakhstan are criticized, and often discredited, in a light favorable to Russia.
According to the US Department of State, Rhythm of Eurasia is a subdivision of the Strategic Culture Foundation, used by the Russian intelligence services to exert information influence in countries of interest by disseminating disinformation and propaganda through local journalists and public opinion leaders.
Rhythm of Eurasia has an extensive network of journalists and experts living and working in the countries they write about. Its editor-in-chief, Yuri Rubtsov, is also the editor of the Russian Unity Foundation website, professor at the Military University of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, and retired colonel of the Russian Armed Forces. His last position was head of the expert-analytical department at the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
In June 2022, in the Russian Military Historical Society’s magazine “Ideology of the Future”, issue No. 5, Rubtsov published an article entitled “The battle with Nazism continues: The operation to denazify Ukraine is the logical conclusion of the Great Patriotic War,” drawing parallels between the fight against Nazism during the Second World War and Russia’s war in Ukraine (https://histrf.ru/files/ideology_of_future_part5.pdf).
In the same issue, Andrei Manoilo (professor of the Department of Russian Politics, Faculty of Political Science, Lomonosov Moscow State University) and Konstantin Strigunov (political analyst and research fellow at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory Research Institute) published an article entitled “Technology for organizing a coup in Kazakhstan (January 2022)”, in which Kazakhstan is described as “a specific state in which there is tribalism, i.e. when the tribal organization underlies the socio-political structure” (https://histrf.ru/files/ideology_of_future_part5.pdf, p. 70).
One of the Rhythm of Eurasia authors is Viktor Gushchin, a citizen of Latvia, President of the Russian Community of Latvia and Director of the Baltic Center for Historical and Socio-Political Research. The Baltic Center for Research Journalism, Re:Baltica, reported that the Baltic Center for Historical and Socio-Political Research had published books about the “discrimination” of the Russian-speaking population in Latvia and described Latvia as a failed state. The report also said that Gushchin’s Baltic Center for Historical and Socio-Political Research received funding from the Russian Consulate in Latvia (https: //en.rebaltica.lv/2015/08/kremlins-millions/).
Rhythm of Eurasia has targeted top officials in Kazakhstan that are independent of Russian political narrative. In February, it published an article entitled “Western Europeans are again muddying the waters in Kazakhstan,” with allegations about the West’s plans to overthrow the current government. An information campaign is underway to accentuate the topic of allegedly growing nationalism and infringed rights of ethnic Russians in Kazakhstan. In the article “Wake up, Kazakhs! How Kazakh cinema awakens interethnic discord,” its author, I. Namovir argues that with the coming to power of President Tokayev, Russophobia and the degradation of interethnic harmony are growing everywhere in the country.
The West is well aware of Rhythm of Eurasia and its negative activities. On April 11, 2024 the Voice of America (www.voanews.com) published an article, “How Russia’s disinformation campaign sees into US views,” which describes the process of spreading Russia’s narrative through numerous articles by pro-Russian journalists and social media groups, and how it causes concern in the West.
In May 2023, an article entitled “How the US government can combat Russian disinformation on Ukraine” was published on the Federal Times (www.federaltimes.com).
Considering the above, the question arises: why have the US, UK, and EU not yet taken any action regarding this online edition? It is obvious that Rhythm of Eurasia works for the Russian intelligence services. Will Russia’s neighbors, including Kazakhstan, have to resist Moscow’s propaganda alone?
