However, in Russia there is a particular issue: Russians have long become used to being lied to by their state. Even before the war, almost half got their news from social media, with the proportion having risen since the invasion. They have thus become powerful not just in shaping the domestic narrative, but also in the Kremlin’s wider information war. Even Putin has come to realise that to spin his message, he can no longer stick to the official media. Hence his carefully-choreographed sit-down with a group hand-picked from both the official war correspondents and the online voenkory.

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Persons: Mark Galeotti, Vladimir Putin, influencers, ”, –, Semyon Pegov, Yury Podolyaka, Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner, Igor ‘ Strelkov, Girkin, ’, voenkory, He’s, voenkor ” Organizations: Mayak Intelligence, University College London, CNN, Mark Galeotti Mayak Intelligence, Kremlin, Twitter, Facebook Locations: Chechnya, Ukraine, Russia, Afghanistan, Russian, Kremlin Ukrainian, Crimea, Belgorod