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On July 21, the incumbent President of the USA and the Democratic Party candidate for the 2024 elections, Joseph Biden, announced his withdrawal from the electoral race, publishing a corresponding statement on his page on his X page. This decision was made in light of the concerns of representatives of the Democratic Party of the United States about Biden's ability to win the election. There were also outright calls for the incumbent president to leave the race. Another factor that reduced Biden's support among Democrats was the failed televised debate between the main presidential candidates, which we detailed in this article.
Biden’s decision not to run in the 2024 election became the main theme in recent days for publications of pro-Russian propagandist Telegram channels networks. Concurrently, they spread fakes about Biden's death and a coup in the USA. Russian officials began accusing Biden of various crimes supposedly committed during his presidency and called for an investigation into the alleged conspiracy of American media and political elites who long concealed the actual state of the president's mental health.
Conspiracy theory about Biden's death
The same day Biden published his statement about withdrawing from the electoral race, the American information space discussed the frailty of the incumbent president and spread a conspiracy theory about his possible death. In particular, this message was promoted by Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert when she demanded "proof of life" for Joe Biden. Such theses were reinforced by the news of Biden testing positive for COVID-19, as reported by the White House on July 17.
The conspiracy theory was also disseminated in Russian propagandist channels. For instance, a Telegram channel with an audience of 26 million subscribers wrote that "it is not clear whether Biden is alive or his body lies in the freezer of the White House." Clearly, the propagandists meant this phrase ironically, drawing parallels with rumors about Putin's death and the preservation of his body in a refrigerator at his Valdai residence.
The chief editor of the propagandist media Regnum, Yuriy Baranchik, picked up the trend of publications about Biden's death. In his Telegram channel, he wrote that Joe Biden, who "was just yesterday hopping across political stages and platforms, suddenly died," also talking about the possibility of a coup in the USA.
A few Russian Telegram channels found confirmation of Biden's death in the lowered state flags of the USA over the Capitol building. This event fueled discussions about Biden's death; however, it turned out that such a sign of mourning was related to the death of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and in no way pertained to the president's condition. Another argument supporting the conspiracy theory, as seen by Russian Telegram channels, was the cancellation of nine planned events and presidential meetings and the absence of public appearances by Biden since the publication of his statement about his withdrawal from the race. One of the Russian Telegram channels with millions of followers published a humorous wanted poster for Biden with the caption: "Biden is missing: help find the President of the USA. The American president has not been seen in public for several days."
A sarcastic poster of Biden's search from Russian propagandist Telegram channels. Text in the photo: "Lost in space, height 183 cm, gray hair, confused speech, signs of stroke, eyes like a lizard."
Another proof of the conspiracy theory was the alleged dissimilarity of Biden's signature on the statement about his withdrawal from the race to his signatures on other documents. American conspiracy theorists conducted investigations, comparing Biden's previous signatures, and systematically proved that the statement was forged. Pro-Russian Telegram channels not so much wrote about the alleged inauthenticity of the signature as used it as an accompanying factor along with other "proofs" to convince the audience of Biden's death or his forcible removal from state governance.
However, due to the resonance of the conspiracy theory in American society, the Democrats were forced to prove that Biden was alive. Therefore, during a speech by Vice President Kamala Harris at the Democratic campaign headquarters in Wilmington, the public heard Biden's voice during his telephone conversation with Harris live. In this conversation, Biden promised to support Harris during her election campaign. However, for many conspiracy theorists in the USA and Russian propagandists on Telegram channels, this conversation was received skeptically and as insufficient proof that the US president was alive. Russian Z-propagandist Artem Sheinin posted about this event in his Telegram channel: "Biden cast his vote for the first time after exiting the presidential race. In the age of digital technologies and endless online formats... such a 'proof' is mediocre. What is wrong with him that he cannot be shown on camera?" However, according to official information from the White House, Biden continues to perform his duties and, according to the report, held two briefings with advisers of national and internal security of the United States.
The final refutation of the conspiracy theory about Joe Biden's death was his video address to the nation, published on the night of July 24 to 25 Kyiv time. In it, Biden justified his decision to leave the election race by citing the need to save democracy and "pass the torch to a new generation."
"Palace Coup in the USA"
The theses mentioned above, which supposedly supported the conspiracy theory about Biden's death, were used by Russian propagandists to spread the notion of a state coup and the fall of democracy in the USA. Russian Telegram channels circulated a quote from American businessman David Sacks on the X network: “Joe Biden has turned America into a banana republic. And, as is customary in banana republics, he was overthrown as a result of a coup d'état.”
The already mentioned propagandist Yuriy Baranchik fueled discussions about the alleged coup in the USA when he wrote in his Telegram channel that "Biden might be imprisoned at his ranch or a military base like Gorbachev in Foros." Additionally, the propagandist wrote that Biden disagrees with such developments and intends to resist. In this context, Baranchik continued, presumably "Trump with the rednecks [a slang wording for farmers, inhabitants of the hinterland, rural workers who work in the fields under the sun, from the English phrase "a red neck"; a part of Trump's electorate — DM’s note, the National Guard and the military will have to protect Sleepy Joe from a coup, like Yeltsin did for Gorbachev."
Other fakes circulated included that Biden had suffered a "severe hypertensive crisis with suspicion of a stroke" and that the White House was already "preparing documents for Kamala to perform the duties of the president," according to a channel with 80,000 subscribers. Russian official figures, including United Russia party member and former State Duma deputy Elena Panina, referred to this information.
Another propagandist, Russian political technologist Marat Bashirov, who supported the conspiracy theory about a coup in the USA, wrote in his Telegram channel that in the White House, they "could not cope with Biden's emotional state after the 'palace coup,' and therefore the 'demonstration of the living body' was postponed." Moreover, Russian propagandists, including Bashirov, predicted Biden's resignation and complete withdrawal from state affairs: "It's unclear whether they managed to persuade Biden to confirm his resignation from the presidency or not. However, as long as he is alive, the world has the right to think that a constitutional coup has happened in the 'beacon of democracy,' the USA."
Russian propagandist Telegram channels also used the decision to transfer part of his duties in matters regarding support for Ukraine to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to argue that the United States was "ruled by a collective Biden" and that this was "hidden" all the time up to the elections. The author’s main message in this statement is the promotion of the idea that Biden is merely a figurehead and all state affairs are done for him.
Another reaction to this decision was Elena Panina's publication in her Telegram channel. She writes about the "significant expansion of Blinken's powers" because, after the partial transfer of powers from the president to the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken can "independently persuade the Congress on how he is going to spend the billions stolen from Russia", referring to Russia’s frozen assets from early 2022. In the same post, Panina accused the US Secretary of State of "abusing the law" and called him "the main traitor and source of information for the enemies of the Biden clan in the person of the Pelosi-Clinton clan."
The message that Biden is not an independent political figure and that instead of him, the country is ruled by a group of unnamed persons was circulated on Russian Telegram channels. Thus, propagandist Sheinin wrote that "as soon as these 'somebody' were convinced that it was impossible to lead the old puppet grandpa through public electoral battles, pulling the strings from the shadow, the puppet was immediately removed from this ‘show.’" In the post, the propagandist convinces readers that it does not really matter who is the president of the United States—whether it's Joe Biden "who rarely comes to his senses" or Kamala Harris "who has no brain"—the position of the president "does not require the presence of consciousness" because a shadow government actually runs the state.
"Kamala Harris is a failed option" — propagandists react to the likely succession of Harris after Biden
After Biden announced his support for the candidacy of Kamala Harris in the elections, the attention of propagandists shifted to the current Vice President of the USA. In Russian Telegram channels, there were blocks of publications dedicated to systematically discrediting Kamala Harris and reducing her chances of victory. Thus, one of the Telegram channels with millions of subscribers published a post characterizing Harris as a "careerist who is not distinguished by intelligence, an even more failed candidate than Biden himself" and concluded that "there is currently no real opponent to Trump in the USA."
Propagandists also referred to Harris as a "faceless child of the deep state". Allegedly, she is just a cover for a group of anonymous individuals who want to rule the United States in the president's name. At the same time, propagandist Sheinin, in his posts, put forth dubious "predictions" where the likelihood of Trump's victory in the elections was 65%, while Harris had only 29%. The reliability of such information was "confirmed" by the fact that the betting agency that provided these forecasts had predicted Biden's withdrawal from the race. This message manipulated statistical information because according to a nationwide poll conducted by Reuters, Kamala Harris leads Trump by 2%, with 44% support from respondents, which is within the margin of error. Therefore, the actual situation at the polling stations might not be as catastrophic for the Democrats as depicted by Russian propagandists.
However, the Reuters publication also came under criticism from Russian political scientists. In particular, Dmitry Drobnitsky called the article with the poll results a "rating attack on Trump" and that initially, there would be a "rigging of the ratings, and then the election results."
Among Russian Telegram channels, there were attempts to project Soviet and Russian aesthetics onto the situation in the USA. Thus, Maria Zakharova, reacting to the news about Biden's supposed death, published a photo of the "Swan Lake" ballet on her Telegram channel, which was a symbol of various political upheavals, including the deaths of leaders in the Soviet Union. Additionally, two Russian propagandist channels mentioned the ballet in the context of Biden's death. Another parallel between the USSR and Russia drawn by propagandists was the theory of the transfer of power in the USA following the "Yeltsin-Putin" model or, as the propagandists called it in channels’ posts—"I am tired, I'm leaving." One of the pro-Russian channels with an audience of more than a million subscribers posted a message that the Democrats are allegedly preparing a power transition from Biden to Harris as Yeltsin did to guarantee Kamala's victory in the elections at the end of 2024. Of course, they did not mention that, unlike the situation with Putin, Harris has a real and powerful competitor.
Propagandists did not skip on the topic of Ukrainian-American relations. A pro-Russian channel with an audience of one million subscribers wrote that Zelenskyy, supposedly "through lobbyists in the Democratic Party, tried to arrange a phone call with Kamala Harris" but unsuccessfully. The propagandists were convinced that if Zelenskyy could not negotiate a telephone conversation, it would mean a "black mark" for Zelenskyy—that it would be a refusal by the new Democratic candidate to cooperate with the President of Ukraine. Confirmation of this, according to the propagandists, is that Zelenskyy is "a puppet of Biden and unwanted by the new US presidents. They can easily put their puppet instead of Zelenskyy."
The reaction of Russian officials and deputies to Biden's decision to withdraw from the electoral race was mixed. The press secretary of the President of Russia, Peskov, and the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia, Medvedev, expressed quite similar reactions regarding events in the USA: "Biden's decision to withdraw from the presidential race is not a priority topic on the Russian agenda. The goals of the Special Military Operation will be achieved." Both Russian officials downplayed the significance of events in the United States and shifted public attention to the war in Ukraine.
On the other hand, there were radical and emotional posts, particularly the chairman of the State Duma, Volodin, wrote about the need to hold Biden accountable "for the unleashed conflict in Ukraine, the destruction of the economies of European countries, and the sanction policy against Russia." Maria Zakharova advanced a similar thesis in her Telegram channel, where she wrote that attention should be focused on "the crimes committed under the auspices of Biden's presidency: uncontrolled arms supplies, turning a European country into a terrorist state with a terrorist regime (presumably referring to Ukraine — DM’s note), the collapse of the economies of the EU countries, uncontrolled migration, endless political machinations, the threat to the existence of states in the Middle East." According to Zakharova, not only Biden should be brought to justice, but also "the American media and political circles that hid Biden’s real mental state, manipulating public opinion," should be held accountable.
Overall, Russian propagandists and networks of Telegram channels tried to discredit Biden by appealing to his age and health condition, convincing the audience of the Democrats' inevitable defeat and Trump's victory in the elections, and portraying a "deep crisis of power" in the USA. One of the Russian propagandists described the situation in the United States as if "the hegemon, with such systemic problems, still continues by inertia to teach everyone how to live, but stands unsteadily on its feet."
After Biden's decision on July 21, Kamala Harris appeared more often in the focus of Russian propaganda. Against the likely Democratic Party candidate for the USA elections in 2024, Russian propagandists began a campaign to discredit Harris's supposed independence as a politician and her complete dependence on a fabricated "shadow government." A feature of some of the discrediting messages is their copying from the American information space, which is spread there by pro-Trump forces. Based on such a peculiarity of the information policy construction, it is logical to assume that the propagandists consider Trump a more convenient president of the United States for Vladimir Putin.
Illustration and infographic credits: Natalia Lobach
