cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/8222868

Archived version

Here is the free download: The White Book: Navigating the Russian Propaganda Minefield (pdf)

The book is an analytical guide that systematizes Ukraine’s experience in countering Russian disinformation — one of the key tools of hybrid warfare against Ukraine.

The book explains how the Russian propaganda machine operates: how its narratives are created, which channels are used to disseminate them, and which actors amplify their influence. It also traces the evolution of Russian disinformation — from political manipulation to its use as a weapon during the full-scale war.

That phrase, “cognitive war,” cannot be underestimated in its significance. “The White Book” argues that Russia is not merely spreading falsehoods. It is attempting to shape the frameworks through which people understand events in the first place.

In its final section, the book warns that disinformation has become a permanent feature of the information environment, increasingly amplified by overload, emotional exhaustion, bot swarms, deepfakes and algorithmic manipulation. The problem, it argues, is no longer only factual falsehood. It is the intentional erosion of the public’s ability to interpret information clearly. The democratic world, the authors suggest, is not only facing a battle over facts, but over the architecture of thought itself.