Breaking the fakes: how Russian mass media use Western platforms to manipulate their own power

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Russian mass media quite often use Western media in order to spread their narratives. Let’s consider a specific example and refute the theses that are given in the presented material.

There is such a resource called “INOSMI”. It appeared in the early 2000s and positioned itself as a mass media that translates “everything worth translating.” However, it soon became clear that this is a structure that manipulates the opinion of readers, applying various practices, creating the appearance of a true media that only translates from other languages, however, experts repeatedly recorded violations and even conducted research exposing “INOSMI” in the falsification of facts, manipulation with translation, etc.

However, the time has come for us to refute the theses of one of the “translations” that appeared on the website recently. This article contains a significant number of statements that are disputed or invalid.

 

Underestimating losses of Russian troops

Quote: “at least one T-90M was destroyed in combat, although its characteristics and survivability far exceed the T-72, T-80, and older variants of the T-90 in the Russian armored forces. The second T-90M was lost in September, although not under enemy fire, but as a result of capture by Ukrainian troops after the retreat of Russian units.”

The online resource Oryx has documented at least six lost Russian T-90M tanks. Probably, the number is even higher, because the battlefield in February-March was often left to the troops of the Russian army. Another 26 T-90A (data as of November 29, 2022*) tanks are documented as lost by the Russian Army.

Breaking the fakes: how Russian mass media use Western platforms to manipulate their own power, The Ukrainian Review

Russian tank T-90M, destroyed by the Ukrainian military. Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Destroyed_T-90M_of_Russian_Army_3.jpg

These are the newest tanks of the Russian Federation, which should be almost invincible against, apparently, weak and armed old Soviet weapons of Ukraine, however, even the documented losses show that this is not the case*.

*As of November 29, 2022, the Russian army lost, according to the Oryx resource, 1,520 tanks of various types, 525 of which were captured by the Ukrainian army.

 

Unreliable information about the newest tank T-14 “Armata”

Quote: “It can be said that this tank is in a separate league: no foreign rival can boast of similar capabilities.”

Foreign resources assess the progress of tank construction in the Russian Federation much more modestly. According to the Army Guide resource, this tank has not yet been tested, and its delivery to the army is delayed until 2023-2025. The delays are related to its technology, sanctions, as well as the fact that foreign components were involved in the production; the T-14 tank also has problems with its engine, which was developed more than 20 years ago.

Breaking the fakes: how Russian mass media use Western platforms to manipulate their own power, The Ukrainian Review

Russian tank T-14 Armata. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-14_Armata#/media/File:T-14_object_148_Armata.jpg

The German publication T-online eloquently writes that according to estimates, the amount of one unit of the T-14 tank can amount to 7 million euros. You can calculate how much it would cost to build the promised 2,000 T-14 units. In addition, after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Western countries introduced limited sanctions against the Russian Federation, which led to a rapid increase in the cost of the project, because many of the components for the T-14 are of foreign origin.

“The cost of the project increased dramatically, Russia had big problems with getting the T-14 into serial production – also because the battle tank uses a lot of special materials and components from the West, which is no longer available,” said military expert Gustav Gressel.

 

Exaggeration of the strength and quality of Russian tanks compared to Ukrainian ones

Quote: “Even older Russian tanks (for example, T-72B3) have significant advantages over Ukrainian armored units of the 1970s.”

This is not true, because most Ukrainian tanks have undergone modernization and are significantly different from the basic versions of the T-64 tank. Various modernized versions of which form the basis of the tank fleet of Ukraine. Deep modernization of the T-64 tank in the “Bulat” and “Bulat 2” versions, 2017, 2021, and 2022 versions of the T-64BV tank can be compared with the most modern tanks of NATO countries or the Russian Federation.

Breaking the fakes: how Russian mass media use Western platforms to manipulate their own power, The Ukrainian Review

Ukrainian T-64 tank on parade, Kyiv. Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/T-64BV_tank%2C_Kyiv%2C_2018_29.jpg

The great effort of the Ukrainian armed forces is noted by the authors of various publications, in particular English-language ones.