Russia: a curious and significant gap in the world of conspiracy theories

@ElentirENG ES 8·28·2022 · 6:59 0

There's been a lot of talk lately about conspiracy theories. There are, in fact, websites and Telegram channels that profusely cultivate this type of theory.

Putin's protocols: a conspiracy that was hidden by spreading conspiracism
The surreal details of the Russian FSB version of the murder of Daria Dugina

I have already pointed out what I think about conspiracy theories. To summarize a bit, I will say that it is as absurd to think that everything is a conspiracy, as it is to think that conspiracies do not exist. Throughout history there have been numerous and gruesome conspiracies. It would be naive to think that no kind of perverse plans are hatched in the world behind public opinion (political corruption cases are a very daily example of this), and it is very paranoid to think that everything that happens to around us is the fruit of evil hidden machinations of shadowy elites.

In any case, I am not writing this post to address either the success (or the error) or the reason for conspiracy theories. I already spoke about that in an article I wrote in March about "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and the Russian disinformation campaign in the months leading up to the invasion of Ukraine. If there are people who want to believe in all kinds of conspiracy theories, they are very free to do so. In any case, a bit of consistency would be appreciated.

On December 30, 2021, Aleksandr Dugin's website published an article by Nestor Halak entitled, precisely, "Conspiracy theory". The article criticized those who disqualify conspiracy theorists, and among other things it was dedicated to feeding this type of alternative theories about the Kennedy assassination, about the 9/11 attacks, on vaccines and on the pandemic.

As I have already pointed out above, my intention with these lines is not to convince those who believe in these and other theories to change their minds. Everyone can go there if they want to believe in them. Personally, I will continue to insist that conspiracism is the best ally of those who are immersed in real conspiracies. Trying to convince the public that it's all a conspiracy often leads most people to rule out that there is even one, unable to distinguish between ridiculous theories and reality.

The paradox of Dugin's website is that last Tuesday he published an article signed by Andrew Korybko accusing those who don't believe in "conspiracy theories" the Kremlin version of the murder of Daria Dugina, a version that accuses a Ukrainian agent of the crime who, according to the Russian FSB, was accompanied by her 12-year-old daughter and her cat. The article disqualifies the versions that contradict the FSB narrative as "kooky explanations", and announces the version of the Russian intelligence service as follows: "The FSB confirmed that Darya Dugina was assassinated by a Ukrainian special agent who infiltrated Russia under the cover of being a single-mother refugee from Donbass."

That the Putin regime affirms something is not confirmation of anything at this point, if only because -as I explained here- spent months lying and insulting those who warned about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and once that aggression began, it has continued to lie constantly and systematically, even threatening Russian citizens who call that invasion an "invasion" with jail. Of course, according to Russian propagandists, so prone to cultivating all kinds of conspiracy theories, you can affirm the most gruesome and picturesque theories about 9/11, vaccines and the pandemic. All of this falls, as we have seen above, into the discourse defended by Dugin's website. However, don't even think about disagreeing with the Russian regime, which lies ad nauseam. The incoherence is so colossal that it is comical.

Along the same lines, in the West conspiracy buffs are given to subscribing to all sorts of conspiracy theories (indeed, the movement against vaccines has been filled with Putin admirers). Of course, they seem willing to discuss any "official version" except the Kremlin's. For them, Putin's is the only political regime that deserves to be believed in everything. Russia has become a vacuum for its theories, as if in its government there were only beings of light, incapable of doing anything wrong, even though they have shown the world that they are capable of attacking a neighboring country, torture, rape and murder thousands of unarmed civilians (including children) and repeatedly lie about those atrocities and the invasion itself. Since they are so prone to suspecting everything, why don't they ever ask themselves who is promoting and feeding this movement that sees conspiracies everywhere but Russia?

---

Photo: Mikhail Svetlov.