Russia spreads propaganda in the Middle East through sexualized content
The Center has uncovered another channel for spreading Kremlin propaganda and Russian influence in the Middle East through the social network X.
It is a network of Arabic-language, promoting messages favorable to Russia. A common feature of this group of pages is that they present themselves as model-looking women, with almost all of their content showing signs of objectification and sexualization of the female body. Images and videos generated by artificial intelligence are frequently used.
▫️ These accounts have managed to amass a large following, with the largest page in this network having over 600 thousand followers.
The primary narrative promoted by this group of accounts aims to position Russia in opposition to the West. Posts continually highlight the “moral decline” of Western countries, while associating Russia with beautiful women and “spirituality.” Many posts depict Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin as a “strong and wise leader.” These information operations are part of the Kremlin’s broader strategy to expand Russia’s influence in the Middle East.
Earlier, the Center documented how a Russian Arabic-language account spreads the statements of “Russian world” ideologue Aleksandr Dugin.
