Russia doesn’t always need you to believe its version of events. Sometimes, flooding the conversation with contradictory claims can serve another purpose: making you doubt whether the truth can be established at all. From the downing of flight MH17 to the Russian disinformation surrounding Bucha, this episode examines how the Kremlin manufactures uncertainty—and how that can undermine trust, exhaust attention, and weaken democratic decision-making. We explore cognitive warfare, the limits of fact-checking alone, and what research on prebunking and Ukraine’s networks of trust can teach us about resisting manipulation. The Institute of Cognitive Defense examines Russian influence operations and how democratic societies can resist them. Subscribe for more evidence-based analysis of propaganda, disinformation, and cognitive warfare.
