Fear itself: How nuclear threats play into the Kremlin's information war over Ukraine

The online images and video are captivating. The headlines fairly scream at you that nuclear doomsday is upon us.

There's no doubt whatsoever that Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened repeatedly to unleash Moscow's atomic arsenal in Ukraine.

Less obvious, said Sean Maloney of the Royal Military College of Canada, is how recent social media-driven hysteria over a Russian train supposedly carrying nuclear equipment to Ukraine, and the Russian navy's nuclear undersea drone capability, may be part of a deliberate campaign to scare the West.

Maloney, a professor of history and student of Soviet Cold War tactics, said Moscow's efforts to manipulate, confuse and weaken public and political resolve in the West should be front and centre when a Parliamentary committee meets Thursday to assess Canada's security posture toward Russia.

Top defence officials are expected to testify before the committee, including the country's senior military commander and the chief of the Communications Security Establishment, Canada's electronic spy agency.

Maloney said members of the House of Commons public safety and national security committee will have to "accept the fact that we are in a permanent adversarial relationship with Russia" and that attempts at manipulation will need to be called out forcefully.

In the military world, it's called information operations.

The Soviets were masters at it from the 1950s through to the 1980s, Maloney said. Other experts say the current regime in the Kremlin has shown itself to be less adept at the practice — something the war in Ukraine has demonstrated clearly.

In addition to reports about the nuclear train and the undersea "doomsday" drone, there have been online posts about the "irregular presence" of Russian strategic bombers in the northern Kola Peninsula.

Maloney said all of these reports should be taken seriously — but with a grain of salt. The fact that three of them emerged within days of each another and in the shadow of Putin's nuclear threats, he said, means they have to be evaluated with a clear eye on who benefits from these narratives, and how.

"I think the intent of that is to exploit the current fear of nuclear war that's been building up," said Maloney. He pointed to at least five recent instances of Putin or members of his inner circle publicly threatening to use tactical nuclear weapons to defend illegally annexed Ukrainian territory.

By putting out unfiltered, unverified images, video and reports on social media, he said, Russia is trying "to support and enhance that fear by letting specialists get hold of that and then [spread the material] through the mainstream media."

Information warfare differs slightly from disinformation campaigns, Maloney said. Disinformation uses lies, forged documents and (sometimes) distorted truths to sow discord and drive wedges into an adversary's society. Information warfare is meant to manage the so-called battlefield using threats, intimidation and misdirection.

Since its annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia has deployed a vast and complex global network to shape the narrative about the Ukraine conflict through formal and social media, according to a 2015 study by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.