Why Kansas for Russia’s Sputnik Radio?

In case you missed it, last Friday, February 14, 2020, the NY Times ran an article “On the Air in Kansas City: Russian Propaganda” which is a photo source and which you can see at: https://nyti.ms/38L2Elt

The article profiles how Russia’s media organization, Rossiya Segodnya. You can find some background on it from the Center for Strategic and International Studies at: http://bit.ly/39NNUlV.

     The Russians cooked a deal with Kansas City’s (MO) Peter Schartel, owner of Alpine Broadcasting Company.  I’ll get to some best practices and operational observations in a moment, but first – why Kansas?

• Some organizations, the American Nurses’ Association for example, thought it made sense to have a base of operations in the middle of the country to serve a national membership. As it turns out – they moved to the Washington, DC area.
• It’s a small market with limited influence, so no one will really care if you screw it up.
• Since the Russians tend to lean right politically, why bother with Kanas? In 2016 they went for Mr. Trump where he earned 56.16% of the vote. Both Senators are Republicans although the governor is a Democrat. It would not appear that the citizens need very much influence to move right.

And of course, there are operational possibilities as well:

• It’s a great test market with limited risks if you fail.
• It could be a diversion for activities going on elsewhere.
• While Social Media is omnipresent – Radio still counts!

Radio Sputnik services 90 cities worldwide and is part Russia’s global influence campaign. US intelligence sources believe that this campaign influenced the US 2016 Presidential election in favor of Mr. Trump.

The Kansas City station is employing several best practices:

·      They are airing their messages for 6 hours a day during prime drive time and on weekends.

·      The share a frequency with a community radio station that was grounded in Kansas City’s jazz community and that already had an audience.

·      Somehow, the managed to avoid having to register as an agent of a foreign government.

·      They have cohesive messaging:

o   America is damaged goods.

o   Playing on internal divisions.

o   “The wheels are coming off the establishment media,”

·      They employ personalities that appeal to their target audience.

o   According to the NY Times “Sputnik shares its Kansas City stations with a cast of far-right conspiracy theorists, evangelical pastors and anti-Semites.”

No matter where you sit in the political spectrum, it is important to realize that America’s adversaries appear to be far better at orchestrating all of their instruments of power to influence people around the world to think their way.

As always, reader comments are encouraged.

Source of the Wizard of Oz photo: https://www.flavorwire.com/411724/50-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-wizard-of-oz

Native Art Can Be The Best PSYOP

The February 4, 2020 NY Times ran an article “In Iraq Where Beauty Was long Suppressed, Art Flowers Amid Protests” (https://nyti.ms/2ScUsVk  which is also the photo source). While the political climate in Iraq is volatile and arguments about US troops are staying and over who was responsible for the most recent rocket attack.

Protest art is cropping in in various places around Baghdad.

These two paragraphs pretty much sum up the situation:

“The paintings, sculptures, photographs and shrines to killed protesters are political art of a kind rarely seen in Iraq, where art has been made for at least 10,000 years. It is as if an entire society is awakening to the sound of its own voice, and to the shape, size and sway of its creative force.

“In the beginning this was an uprising, but now it is a revolution,” said Bassim al-Shadhir, an Iraqi-German who goes back and forth between the two countries and has participated in the protests. “There is art, there is theater, people are giving lectures and distributing books — giving them away for free.””

Interestingly enough the article noted “There has been little if any new anti-American messages in the paintings in recent days, even though there is more anti-American feeling in Baghdad…..

The article postulates that there are two possible reasons: there are already more than enough murals with anti-American and Anti-Israel messages and/or there is not much available space.

Unlike other forms of influence, there is no question about the origin and how the art reflects how a younger generation of Iraqis have been influenced by the internet.

While today’s influence campaigns have been focused on Social Media and the like, it is worthwhile to step back and recognize that the people of the country are the best ones to influence its future.