The Myth of Russia’s "Friendship Within the Nations": How Telegram Destroys It

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Despite the premise of tolerance and protection of ethnic minority rights in Russia promoted by state propaganda, a network of propaganda Telegram channels regularly disseminates content that incites interethnic conflict and increases xenophobia.

Russia is trying to promote the idea on the international arena that it protects the peoples who were "under the yoke of the West" and genuinely cares about "weaker states". Moreover, even within the federation itself, it allegedly tries to protect all its ethnic groups and suppresses ethnic discrimination. Russian propaganda constantly tries to show that, in contrast to Russia, it is Ukraine that allegedly discriminates against various groups and Europe only deepens "Russophobia." The main target audience of such messaging is residents of the Middle East, Africa, and South America.

However, Russia is silent about its close cooperation with radical nationalist movements within the country, which are waging an active information campaign against migrants from Central Asia and stirring up ethnic hatred in every possible way. They also do not avoid acting on the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

"Detector Media" analyzed the content of the “Mnogonazi” Telegram-channel, which spreads that particular rhetoric to an audience of more than 300,000 subscribers, and found that other propaganda Telegram-channels from our Research Center's sample regularly and systematically repost content from this particular channel, citing it as the primary source. Here is more about how such materials become part of Russian propaganda and how such narration destroys the myth of "friendship within the nations" in Russia itself, that also became integrated into the Russian foreign policy.

Russia has been using the idea of "friendship within the nations” as a tool of its foreign policy since the days of the USSR, as one of the goals of the Soviet dictators was communism spreading throughout the world. The Kremlin has utilized this concept in many ways - from large-scale events to representatives of different races on propaganda posters.

A Soviet poster from 1959. The writing says “Any kid - yellow, black, white. Let it grow and go bravely to life!” Source: Terry Posters

Russia continues to use these means nowadays to present itself as a true "cradle of nations." Since the collapse of the USSR, Russia has also tried to spread this message through a number of different organizations and alliances it has created - the CIS, the Eurasian Customs Union, and now the BRICS - which researchers from Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich, Bard College, and LGT call primarily political rather than economic projects. Russia is making great efforts to convince the world that it is truly concerned about the nations "enslaved by the West."

In North Africa, support for Russia remains high, and in some countries it is even growing. For example, according to the ArabBarometer, in 2024, the majority of Tunisians (60%) and Moroccans (58%), as well as almost half of Kuwaitis (49%) and Jordanians (47%), had a very or somewhat positive attitude toward Russia. Fewer people shared the same opinion in Lebanon and Mauritania (43% each), as well as in Palestine (29%). Between 2022 and 2024, favorable attitudes toward Russia increased slightly in Jordan (by 8%) and much more in Tunisia (by 17%) and Morocco (by 20%). Over the same period, attitudes remained unchanged in Palestine and Mauritania, while in Lebanon, the level of support for Russia fell by 9%.

The results of these polls also show that although the public's attitude toward Russia in the Middle East and North Africa has not changed since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the vast majority of people in the surveyed countries do not support Russian aggression against Ukraine. In addition, Russia's attempt to use the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza to position itself against the United States and the "collective West" has not found many supporters among the residents of these countries.

There are no recent polls on this matter in Sub-Saharan Africa countries. However, an Afrobarometer survey conducted in 2021-2022 showed that 25% of South Africans have a positive perception of Russia's economic and political influence, while 22% have a negative one. The positive perception of Russia's influence has decreased by 5% over this period. In addition, 42% of respondents believe that they lack information to assess Russia's influence.

An Ipsos poll conducted in 2023 in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, and Zambia found that the majority of respondents in these countries believe that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a violation of international law and that Russian troops should leave Ukraine. For example, in Kenya and South Africa, the majority of respondents expressed support for Ukraine over Russia. However, many respondents also agreed that their continent should remain neutral in the situation, emphasizing the negative effects of the war on food supplies and energy prices in Africa.

Russia has a positive image among Central Asian countries, but there are a number of nuances in the public perception of Russian aggression against Ukraine in the region. A poll conducted by Demoscope in November 2022 showed that 22% of Kazakhstani respondents expressed support for Ukraine, while 13% supported Russia, from 39% in March 2022. In addition, the 2023 poll showed that 15% of Kazakh respondents believe that Russia could invade Kazakhstan, compared to 8.3% in the previous poll. According to the Carnegie Endowment and The Diplomat, in a poll conducted in May and June 2022, 86% of Kyrgyz respondents and 76% of Uzbek respondents had a positive attitude toward Russia. However, 70% of Kyrgyzstanis and 30% of Uzbeks attributed their country's economic problems to Russia's actions against Ukraine.

Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to a CSIS poll, 56% of Mexicans surveyed believed that their country should stay out of the war, including refraining from providing humanitarian aid. In the same period, 65% of Argentinians surveyed condemned the war, but 25% of them still had a positive attitude toward Putin.

Russia's foreign policy in these regions is a combination of small strategic successes and a number of difficulties. In recent years, Russia has expanded its influence in Africa, especially in countries such as Sudan, Niger, Libya, Burkina Faso, Mali, and the Central African Republic. Russia is using its historical ties here and filling in the gaps left by Western countries. However, Russia's economic influence in Africa remains modest compared to China's and the West. In addition, the deployment of Russian private military companies such as the Wagner Group have not been as successful as expected, Le Monde writes.

Russia has historically sought to expand its influence in Latin America. However, while Russia has tried to strengthen ties with countries in the region through economic and military cooperation, its influence has remained relatively limited. Russia plays a significant role in the Middle East and North Africa region, particularly through its military intervention in Syria. However, recent events, such as the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria, have called that influence into question. The loss of strategic military bases in Tartus and Hmeymim, as well as the need to renegotiate relations with the new leadership, add to the uncertainty of Russia's role in the region.

Central Asia is of strategic importance to Russia, and its foreign policy goals here are mostly in the nature of military-technical and security cooperation. Russia maintains a presence in the region, using historical ties and regional security interests. However, the effectiveness of its policy is affected by the complex dynamics of regional politics and the interests of other states.

Although Russia has achieved certain strategic goals in these regions, which have resulted in at least voting against or abstaining from voting on UN General Assembly resolutions condemning Russian aggression against Ukraine, the effectiveness of its foreign policy in these regions in the context of initiatives beyond soft power and information policy is rather limited. That is why Russia is trying to compensate for these failures with greater efforts in information propaganda campaigns in these regions, reinforcing the narrative that Russia is "nobly fighting" for its "weaker brothers" in all parts of the world, as “Detector Media” has repeatedly written about.

However, propagandists spread the opposite messages to the audience across the former Soviet Union, which contradict the thesis of "friendship within the nations." Among the sample of Telegram channels studied by the Research Center, we found those that regularly post content directed against migrants from this region and various ethnic groups  in  Russia.  These  channels  pointed out  one  and  the same original source - the “Mnogonazi” Telegram channel, which we decided to take a closer look at.

Access to the “Mnogonazi” channel, which has more than 300,000 subscribers, is blocked in the EU, particularly in Poland, Lithuania, and Germany. However, its materials are reposted by a number of propaganda Telegram-channels. In particular, those of the Wagner Group, which operates in Africa and other parts of the "global South". Its content is also reposted by propaganda channels that target Ukrainian and foreign Russian-speaking audiences. Sometimes they publish more than three of its posts per day, and the total number of reposts on just a few channels of the propaganda network monitored by “Detector Media” as part of its research reaches more than ten per week, which indicates not just a coincidence but a systematic integration of such rhetoric into Russian propaganda.

The authors of this channel actively use the technique of framing, i.e. they publish only the information that covers a certain part of the topic in the way that is necessary for the stakeholder behind the media. The channel's description says "We are for friendship within the nations," but its content indicates the opposite. The channel publishes only negative materials about migrants - their presence in Russia is presented as a problem that needs to be addressed at the level of state policy, and sometimes even the slightest attempts by the state to attract migrants are criticized.

For example, this is how they reacted to the proposal of the Russian Ministry of Labor to pay larger amounts to mothers with more than three kids:

"Another harmful initiative that will encourage migrant families to come to Russia and suck up to our welfare system... What will happen? Hundreds of "heroic mothers" from heroin-exporting countries come and get on welfare in Russia..."

This is a typical example of propaganda that uses a number of techniques and tactics to create a negative attitude towards a particular social group and political decision. In particular, demonization is a description of migrants as parasites who "suck" into the social system, hints of their criminality. Negatively connotated words cause indignation and fear. There is also a fake dilemma here - the opposition of support for large families among Russians and assistance to migrants, although these processes are usually implemented in parallel. This way, propagandists also appeal to fear of an "invasion" of migrants, as well as to generalizations and stereotypes.

Despite having some posts that condemn any activity in support of Ukraine, the channel is essentially an anti-migrant criminal chronicle - posts about crimes committed by migrants against "true Russians" is the main type of content here. In particular, in January alone, one can find the following posts on this topic:

In addition to reporting only on crimes committed by migrants and ignoring cases where crimes are committed by "natives," the channel presents the crimes of a few individuals from Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, and other countries as if they were typical of all immigrants from these countries. Migrants are described as members of "gangs," "radicals," or "fraudsters" - for this purpose, the authors also created the neologism “ОПГ-диаспора” ("OCG-diaspora" - organized criminal group). This creates the impression that migrants are not just individual offenders, but a systematic threat. In that way, Russian propagandists create an image of an external enemy to unite society and justify their aggression. This incitement of ethnic hatred also distracts the audience from the real state of affairs in the country. Instead, creating an atmosphere of fear and distrust contributes to the radicalization of Russian society.

The channel's authors also selectively publish news about migrant crimes abroad as well.  In particular,  in  January  on  their  additional channel "Mnogonazi. Economy" with more than 16 thousand subscribers, published a post about BlackRock CEO Larry Fink allegedly saying that "labor shortages are bad for the economy, but the practice of countries with 'xenophobic migration policies' (China, Korea, Japan, etc.) has proven the opposite," although the video attached by the propagandists makes it clear that these words are taken out of context. The authors of the material deliberately emphasized that BlackRock is the largest investment company. Thus, this manipulation is an example of the use of an appeal to authority and is intended to create the impression that the opinion expressed is unquestionable. The channel also writes only about countries with low immigration rates and successful economies to create the illusion that it is a tough migration policy that is the reason for their success. Other factors such as the demographic crisis (especially in Japan and South Korea) are not taken into account. This is an example of a fake dilemma that creates the illusion of a choice in which there are only two options without any alternative, combined with the use of categorical statements ("Our government will either realize this and pursue the right stimulus policy (nothing happens by itself), or we will remain on the sidelines of global development, in conditions when engineers are becoming mailmen"). With that, the channel's authors want to convince the public that "xenophobic policies" are economically beneficial, and therefore, Russians should accept further limitations in the future. This is a typical example of propaganda that masquerades as economic analysis, but is actually aimed at ideological influence.

The channel also covers rape cases in the United Kingdom involving people from Pakistan. All of these posts use a number of propaganda techniques to manipulate emotions and create a negative image of Muslim migrants, as well as to discredit Western governments and media. In particular, hyperbole and exaggeration are used - propagandists claim that "250,000 white young girls have been raped in England by men from Muslim countries," but this number is not confirmed by official sources and is exaggerated to cause shock and fear. In this case, the authors also used the "horror story" technique: it consists in describing a situation with a graphic description of violence for emotional manipulation. The propagandists also reinforce the sense of a "conspiracy" by the British prime minister and high-ranking officials who allegedly turn a blind eye to the crimes. This way, the Russians are trying to undermine trust in the authorities and media in Western countries, as well as to create the belief that only the "right forces" (including Russia) can reveal the truth.

The channel also spreads the rhetoric of such European political movements as “Alternative for Germany” with its anti-immigration views. On January 2, the authors of this channel wrote about the "New Year's mood in Berlin", sarcastically hinting that the city is allegedly dangerous because there are too many migrants from the Middle East. The message presents them as a sole source of chaos, violence and destruction. The use of a phrase from the speech of the leader of the AfD political force, Alice Weidel, that Berlin is allegedly in "civil war-like conditions" is hyperbole that exaggerates the level of violence, and her words are generally used by the authors to confirm the general narratives.

The propagandists deliberately create the impression that the situation has only two options: either chaos and violence because of migrants or complete order without them. There is no mention of the more complex socio-economic factors that may influence the level of violence. The last sentence of the analyzed post, "The main thing is not to forget that it is safest to live next to migrants," uses sarcasm again to ridicule the idea of safe coexistence with migrants.

The authors of the “Mnogonazi” are not only against migrants, but also against various ethnic groups within Russia itself. They advocate for the mono-ethnicity of Russia, i.e., the principle of "Russia is for true Russians only." For this purpose, they use the same techniques.

For example, in one of the messages about a "pedophile from Kabardino- Balkaria" (a Russian region) there is a repetition of the fact that he is a "pedophile" (6 times). This creates a strong emotional charge aimed to cause disgust of the person. The text also contains many details of the criminal case against the convicted person, although the message itself does not relate to a sexual crime at all - the story is primarily about how, while in prison, the person received contracts for the state financing of infrastructure projects with the help of relatives. Instead of focusing on the corruption scheme, the story focuses on the personal characteristics of the perpetrator (including his family ties). Although the story itself is true, the presentation of the material increases public outrage by shifting the focus.

Another post referred to six athletes from Karachay-Cherkessia (another Russian region) who refused to stand for the Russian national anthem at a competition and were administratively punished for it. The post calls them "abu bandits," which associates them with terrorism or crime. This is an attempt to present them as extremely dangerous and disloyal to the state. The authors of the post use ethnic labeling, i.e., deliberately emphasize their ethnic background, which reinforces the negative attitude toward representatives of the peoples of the Caucasus in general. The behavior of the six people is presented as typical of all Caucasians or Muslims. This is reinforced by phrases such as "We talked about a similar incident in Nalchik a year ago" and "Turn on the national anthem and see how many Wahhabis stand up to it.”

References to other events are used to create the illusion of recurrence of such cases, although no specific data or statistics on the scale of the phenomenon are provided. Instead of analyzing the reasons for refusing to stand for the anthem (protest, personal beliefs, technical reasons), the post immediately concludes that the participants are disloyal and extremist. This message is an example of xenophobic and propagandistic rhetoric aimed at inciting interethnic tension.

In another post about the charges of hooliganism with violence against a 14- year-old teenager from Chechnya, Muslim Murdiyev, the emphasis is again on the boy's nationality, although this factor is not directly related to the merits of the case. This creates a generalization that such behavior is typical of all Chechens. The teenager is described not just as an offender, but as a "gang member," which immediately creates associations with organized crime. The use of the phrase "attacked random people" without further details of the case creates the impression of cruelty and wanton aggression. The report mentions Ramzan Kadyrov (the Chechnya leader loyal to Putin) and his words that he "agreed" that the teenager would not go to prison. They also write about the "boundless Chechen influence" on the Russian legal system. The Chechen Ombudsman, who speaks out about violations of Murdiev's rights, is discredited in the same post by ridiculing him, devaluing his status, and justifying possible violations of the child's rights because he is allegedly to blame. This message is manipulative, as it deliberately uses ethnic labeling, demonization and sarcasm to create an image of a "Chechen threat."

Another post does not even specify which specific ethnic groups are being referred to, only that "Caucasians are terrorizing a residential complex" in Krasnogorsk, Moscow region. The authors refer to the representatives of the "Caucasian nationality" in the text as "drug Wahhabits" and "scum" to dehumanize them and impose a false association with Islamic extremism. The phrase "What if he comes out during the day when we are walking with our children?!" as a quote creates an image of a threat to cause fear. Descriptions such as "they go out at night high on drugs" and "it really almost came to a massacre" paint a dramatic picture of danger. The main focus of this post is not crime as such, but that the perpetrators are representatives of the “Caucasian nationalities”, and the police are allegedly "covering up" for them. This creates the image of a systemic conspiracy. The phrase "The locals organized and took control of the situation" is a legitimization of lynching. And the use of calls to "evict them now!" incites readers to take immediate action, including further violence.

These examples are only part of Russian propaganda aimed at domestic consumers. It is a fracture of a larger strategy aimed at humiliating migrants and supporting Russia's mono-ethnic policy, i.e., one that absorbs all smaller ethnic groups and erases signs of ethnic identity in favor of a single "Russian identity". Migrants from Central Asia, who are important to the Russian economy, were particularly targeted, especially against the backdrop of economic sanctions imposed by the international community in response to the aggression against Ukraine.

According to the Sova Center, in the summer and fall of 2023, far-right groups, including “Народное ополчение” (People's Militia), intensified their work against migrants. They not only initiated information campaigns, but also participated in joint raids with the police, and sometimes acted independently as "order keepers." These groups organized patrols, identified and detained people they believed to be offenders, involving law enforcement only at the final stage. The FSB, the State Migration Service, and local departments of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs were also involved in the raids.

Criminal chronicles of anti-immigration nature, like “Mnogonazi”, have become an integral part of the Russian information space, despite the fact that the decline in the number of migrants is worsening Russia's economic performance.

For example, according to Kommersant, in 2023, the Sverdlovsk region (Ural) experienced a shortage of labor at industrial enterprises due to the outflow of migrants and demographic problems. However, local governments and businesses continue to reinforce this policy through their actions. In 2023, Yakutia (a remote Russian region) introduced restrictions on the employment of migrants in transportation services and other 33 types of business activities. In Dagestan and Ossetia, in 2024, the dismissal of migrants from public utilities led to problems with waste management. The situation became so dramatic that the Uzbek government then launched a state program to support alternative routes to work immigration, in particular to South Korea, and sponsored return home organized by the Uzbek embassy in Russia.

By demonizing Ukraine, giving it a false image of a violent nationalist state, Russia is silencing its own nationalism. At the same time,  with  attempts to justify  its  aggression  against  Ukraine with "denazification," Russia itself humiliates a number of ethnic groups both around it and within its own country. In addition, by treating them this way, Moscow shows that all its promises about a "better life for Ukrainians" in the Russian grip are just an illusion.

Russia promotes the image of itself as a multinational and tolerant state on the international stage. At the same time, it accuses Ukraine of ultraradical nationalism and intolerance. However, the real situation inside Russia itself shows the opposite, and the aforementioned rhetoric, even at the micro level, which is the content of one Telegram-channel, is proof of this. Russia is home to various ethnic minorities and migrants and these groups and individuals face systematic discrimination and hostility. According to the Minority Rights Group International, migrants and ethnic minorities regularly experience hostile attitudes, reinforced by nationalist rhetoric in political and public discourse, which creates a split between ethnic Russians and other ethnic groups.

Russian officials and state media portray Ukraine as a country riddled with nationalist ideology. However, CIDOB's research shows that modern Ukraine maintains a high level of cosmopolitanism, tolerance and respect for other ethnic groups that have lived on its territory for centuries. Russian rhetoric directed at the “global South” often emphasizes the West's “racism and xenophobia”, positioning Russia as a more tolerant alternative. However, internal problems with discrimination against ethnic minorities and migrants tell a different story. This emphasizes the gap between official rhetoric and reality, which may encourage international audiences to be more critical towards Russian messaging.

The main image was created by Oleksii Pivtorak.