How Russian propaganda quietly promotes its narratives to Western audiences through posts about culture, history and science

We investigated three English-language pages on the social network X, each with several million followers, which seemingly share neutral content. However, alongside posts about culture, history, and science, these accounts subtly promote pro-Kremlin narratives to Western audiences. While we do not provide links to these pages to avoid amplifying their reach, they are easy to find if necessary. 

Statistics and science

Two of these pages, “World of Engineering” and “World of Statistics,” are closely related. “World of Engineering,” created in 2015, has 3.3 million followers, while “World of Statistics,” launched in 2020, boasts 3.8 million followers. Both accounts are known for sharing popular science facts, engineering news, and historical discoveries, etc. However, about a third of their posts are rather strange, to say the least.

For instance, “World of Statistics” offers an ideal example of russian hybrid warfare in action. About a month ago, the account published a post comparing nations supposedly culturally similar to russia, listing Belarus at 85.5%, Ukraine at 77%, and Kazakhstan at 69.5%. Latvia and Serbia also ranked in the top five. 

Where did the data come from? 

The author of the post references the “Country Similarity Index,” a company that actually exists. It is a private initiative that attempts to quantify how similar countries are to each other. However, this index compares countries based not only on cultural similarities but also on demographics, politics, infrastructure, and geography.

According to the creators of “Country Similarity Index,” russia is similar to Ukraine and the other three countries (excluding Serbia) primarily due to their shared history as part of the Soviet Union or the russian Empire. Other similarities include the use of the Cyrillic alphabet, type C and F electrical sockets, and driving on the right side of the road. Additionally, four out of the five countries use the russian railway gauge. It’s evident that this data has little to do with culture, don’t you think? 

“The World of Statistics” frequently cites surveys and data that portray russia in a favourable light. The country is often ranked among the top twenty in IQ, leads in the number of chess grandmasters, and is listed in the top ten for the number of universities and the level of education. 

Particularly notable is russia’s inclusion in the top ten countries with the richest history. On russian President Vladimir Putin’s birthday, the page highlighted statistics on the ages of world leaders, showing that Putin is younger than both Xi Jinping and Joe Biden.

When discussing European unemployment rates, the statistics presented are selective, with russia and Switzerland showing the best rates. In military statistics, russia is consistently ranked among the top three in categories such as the number of tanks and overall military strength, etc.

What is Ukraine’s position?

Ukraine is conspicuously absent from these so-called “positive” rankings. Instead, it frequently appears in lists with negative connotations. For example, Ukraine is ranked 11th in the rating on the most depressed countries, while russia ranks 84th. Ukraine also tops the list for inflation and is noted as the poorest country in terms of GDP per capita. Additionally, Ukraine was ranked first in terms of aid received from the U.S., which predictably sparked heated debate in the comments, especially from Republican and Palestinian supporters.

In one of the latest polls, readers were asked to name the country that causes the most problems globally. While the answer might seem obvious to us and to you, russia was barely mentioned. Instead, the U.S., Israel, and the vague category of “Muslim countries” topped the list, with Ukraine curiously omitted.

Gagarin and Laika 

Another page in “World of Technology” focuses less on modern facts or scientific discoveries and more on the past. It frequently highlights nostalgic references to the Soviet space program, including Yuri Gagarin, the dog Laika, and Ihor Sikorsky, who is inaccurately labeled as a “russian aircraft designer” despite being from Kyiv, as we all know. A review of the content reveals that the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz is mentioned three times more often than the American NASA.

A particularly noteworthy post on the eleven most prominent space rocket developers includes Serhiy Koroliov, Valentyn Hlushko, and Kostiantyn Tsiolkovsky. Tsiolkovsky is described as a russian and Soviet scientist, while Koroliov and Hlushko, both Ukrainians, are referred to merely as “Soviet engineers,” with no mention of their Ukrainian heritage. 

The peculiar presentation of statistics and scientific facts on these two accounts appears to be linked to the person behind them: Denis Gerasimov, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Military Academy. Ukrainian social media users exposed him in May 2024 when they discovered that he initially included this information in his account bio and openly identified himself as the founder of the pages.

After his identity was widely revealed, Gerasimov closed his account and re-named himself as “Thomas Mueller.” Despite frequent comments pointing out that these accounts are run by a russian propagandist, their audience has not dwindled. Collectively, these pages boast over six million followers, predominantly foreign subscribers. 

A cultural tutor 

Another account that we analyzed is “The Cultural Tutor,” which was created in May 2022 and has since amassed 1.7 million followers. The page is managed by Sheehan Quirk, an Englishman who previously worked at McDonald’s and as a night watchman before launching his Twitter account. In addition to managing “The Cultural Tutor,” Quirk also publishes a weekly newsletter offering lessons in art, history, architecture, and more.

While Quirk is not russian, some of his posts reveal a notable admiration for “russian culture”. For instance, in October last year, he posted a thread titled “A Brief Introduction to Soviet Architecture,” which turned out to be a 21-tweet full of undisguised admiration. He described the Moscow metro as the pinnacle of Stalinist architecture — a sentiment echoed by many others. It’s not uncommon for foreigners to tweet about the beauty of the russian underground, but the hype reached its peak during a visit to russia by American TV host Tucker Carlson, who was similarly “captivated by the beauty of the architecture.” russian propaganda outlets quickly seized on this, creating dozens of stories about Carlson’s admiration. 

Quirk’s account also gained attention for publishing a guide on how a constitutional monarchy works. Notably, the guide included a map of Europe where Crimea was marked as russian territory – an important detail that remains uncorrected to this day.

His tweet about Zinaiida Serebriakova, a Ukrainian and French artist, caused the most disapproval among Ukrainians. If the author was really a “cultural tutor”, he would have provided readers with some context about the appropriation of the Ukrainian artist by russians. Instead, he merely notes that Serebriakova was born in Kharkiv, “then part of the russian Empire”, and calls her a student of the “master of russian realism” Illia Repin. 

He also fails to mention that Repin was born into a Ukrainian family, was inspired by Ukrainian nature and folklore, and maintained close ties with Ukraine. Nor does he explain that, along with self-portraits, Ukrainian motifs were central to Serebriakova’s paintings. Instead, he mentions her interest in “the life of ordinary people, peasants, shepherds and fishermen, especially their clothes, as well as agriculture in general”. At the same time, the illustration — the portrait “Peasant Girl” — depicts a girl wearing an embroidered shirt with red and black floral patterns. 

The author also says that during her trip to Morocco, Serebriakova found pleasure in painting ordinary people, “as she used to do in russia”. The majority of the paintings in the thread depict Ukrainian villagers.

In the comments, opinions were divided, with Ukrainian users explaining that Serebriakova is a Ukrainian artist, while foreigners wrote that it doesn’t matter, the main thing is that the tutor told the story of an extraordinary woman. 

What is the danger of such accounts? 

They publish posts about historical events, cultural achievements, and interesting statistics to attract the attention of their followers. However, among this content, there are posts that are aimed at promoting pro-russian imperial narratives. 

The russian propaganda methodology is simple: they create English-language resources that look local. The content includes 2/3 of truthful information and 1/3 of manipulations and pro-russian messages. In this way, they distort reality by emphasizing russia’s positive features. And Western audiences, without realizing it, are influenced by this disinformation. Unfortunately, such accounts have a large audience (almost 9 million followers for the three of them), which makes their influence particularly dangerous

Analyzed by Aliona Malichenko.