by Dr Helena Ivanov
As Russia’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum approaches, the Kremlin is once again seeking to secure support from influential Western voices. Often referred to as Russia’s Davos, the forum is designed to showcase the country to international audiences and present an image of Russia that the Kremlin would like the world to see. This year appears to be no exception.
Russia’s disinformation warfare strategy has never relied on a single tactic. It is broad and multifaceted. It includes bot networks designed to spread disinformation online, state-funded media outlets targeting foreign audiences, and the cultivation of influential Western personalities who can help shape public perceptions of Russia.
Among those travelling to Russia are several high-profile influencers, including Candace Owens and Andrew and Tristan Tate.
Owens has already arrived in Moscow and is scheduled to speak at the forum on “balancing parenthood in a large family with a successful career.” Since arriving, her social media posts have focused heavily on portraying Russia as a beautiful, Christian, and morally grounded country. She has also accused the West of “lying to us about Russia.”
Russia is unquestionably a country with a rich cultural heritage and extraordinary history. It is also a beautiful country. But that is far from the full picture. Russia is also a country governed by a regime that launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It is a country that regularly imprisons political opponents, suppresses independent media, and shows little tolerance for dissent. Yet anyone relying solely on Owens’s posts would struggle to find any mention of these realities. Instead, they would be left with the impression of a country unfairly and wrongly portrayed by Western governments and media.
The Tate brothers have adopted a similar approach. Both have publicly celebrated their trip to Moscow while remaining notably silent on the nature of the regime hosting them. Whether they will formally participate in the forum remains unclear. What is clear, however, is that neither has used their platform to discuss Russia’s repression at home or its war against Ukraine.
It may seem irrelevant that these individuals are travelling to Russia. However, that would be a mistake.
The size of their audience is enormous. Andrew Tate has more than 10 million followers on X, while Candace Owens has nearly 8 million. These are not fringe figures speaking to niche audiences. They have a reach that many traditional media outlets would envy.
More importantly, we have evidence that their influence extends beyond simple entertainment.
In our report, Breaking the Echo Chamber, the Henry Jackson Society surveyed UK university students to examine the extent to which online disinformation shapes public opinion. One of the case studies focused on Owens’s repeated claim that Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, is a man.
The results were striking. More than 60 per cent of respondents said they had encountered the claim – which speaks to the sheer number of people Owens can reach with her ludicrous claims. Even more concerning, 17.6 per cent said they believed it completely, while a further 28.6 per cent said they believed it somewhat. Only 38.2 per cent rejected the claim outright. Another 15.6 per cent said they did not know what to believe. This speaks not only about her reach, but also her ability to persuade.
If these are the figures associated with a claim that many would regard as plainly absurd, it is worth considering the impact that carefully curated portrayals of Russia might have on public opinion. Unlike a celebrity conspiracy theory, perceptions of a foreign country are often difficult for ordinary people to verify. Most people will never visit Russia themselves. Instead, they will form opinions based on the information they encounter online.
This is precisely why the Kremlin invests so heavily in cultivating influential Western voices. The objective is not necessarily to convince audiences that Russia is perfect. Rather, it is to ensure that when people think about Russia, they think first about beautiful churches, traditional values, hospitality, and cultural heritage, rather than censorship, political repression, and an illegal war against Ukraine.
But even more crucially, the objective is to undermine the trust people place in the Western political establishment and liberal democracies more generally. When people believe Owens’s claims, they also come to believe that the West is lying to them. If the West is lying about Russia, the obvious follow-up question becomes: what else is it lying about?
That is why these trips matter. They are not simply tourism, nor are they politically neutral cultural exchanges. They form part of a much broader information battle in which perceptions can be just as important as facts. And if a claim as outlandish as the one about Brigitte Macron can persuade millions of people, it would be naïve to assume that carefully managed narratives about Russia will not do the same.
