CCD Head: Russia spends billions of dollars on propaganda
Russian propaganda is funded through secret budgets of the Russian Defense Ministry as well as television channels, according to Head of the Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) Andriy Kovalenko.
"Part [of the funding] comes from the secret budgets of the Russian Defense Ministry. They have the Wings Studio, which produces various video stories, including ones about soldiers wearing Ukrainian uniform. This studio's annual budget alone exceeds $2 million. We have information about seven similar projects with slightly lower yearly budgets. Part of propaganda financing comes through the budgets of RT, Zvezda channel, and the so-called 'Novorossiya' channels," he said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine, explaining how Russian propaganda is financed.
According to the CCD head, the Wagner Group and its media resources are also involved in the development of a propaganda chain and its promotion in Ukraine.
"While we spend millions of hryvnias, the Russians spend millions of dollars. And this applies solely to the production of information content and recruitment of Ukrainians living in Europe," he emphasized.
"Thus, when we talk about their propaganda spending on Ukraine alone, it exceeds $100 million for content production, the spread of propaganda on social media, and the recruitment of Ukrainians abroad to work against Ukraine. This figure does not include the budgets of RT and other holdings," Kovalenko said.
In general, the enemy invests billions of dollars in propaganda, the head of the CCD said.
"They have such capabilities. Russia has merged its military budget with propaganda funding to obscure the exact amounts of money spend on the information war against Ukraine," he said.