ABSTRACT
Research on modern ‘Russian propaganda’ has been rapidly growing in recent years. It has examined information disorder activities organised, allegedly, by actors formally or informally affiliated with the Russian state and mostly directed at foreign populations. Of the over 40 academic papers on Russian disinformation the author have reviewed, none have contained airtight, solid proof of the linkage of disinformation efforts to particular government authorities in Russia. Perhaps the Russian authorities shared a view, given that they attempted to block Telegram after the company refused to disclose the encryption keys in 2018. However, some Russian scholars noted that the protective anonymity of Telegram channels made the messenger a substitute for a public sphere for the elite, including politicians, civil servants, journalists, PR practitioners, businessmen, and intellectuals. Whatever anti-surveillance idea was behind Telegram, it worked in a twofold way in the Russian public sphere.
