New York Times article: The five conspiracy theories that Putin employed as a weapon to serve his goals

For the past two decades, says The New York Times, Russian journalists and officials have happily spread disinformation in coordination with the Kremlin in Moscow.

According to an article written by Ilya Yablokov, a lecturer in journalism and digital media at the University of Sheffield in England, and published by the newspaper, Russian President Vladimir Putin is driven by conspiracy theories and narratives such as that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is plotting to oust him from power.

He adds that these accounts serve a clear goal, which is to "strengthen the regime and ensure popular support for its actions."

Whatever the personal opinions of members of the political establishment, it seemed clear that theories play no role in political calculations, those accounts were formulated to make the actions of the Russian regime seem logical in the service of its own ends, in the words of Yablokov, who wrote a book called “Fortified Russia: Conspiracy Theories in Post-Soviet World (Fortress Russia: Conspiracy Theories in the Post-Soviet World)

But those novels - in the opinion of the author of the article - no longer work. Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine two months ago, the gap between conspiracy theory and state policy has closed to the point of vanishing.

Conspiratorial thinking has taken over the Russian state completely, from the top of the pyramid to the bottom, to the extent that it has now become - it seems - the driving force behind the decisions of the Kremlin.

Yablokov notes that Putin, who previously preferred to stay away from conspiracy theories leaving their circulation to the state media and second-rate politicians, was nothing but its "main promoter".

Here are five of the most popular conspiracy theories that the Russian president has sanctioned "with fervor" over the past decade, according to Yablokov's article:

Theory 1: The West wants to divide Russia

At his annual national press conference in 2007, Putin was asked an odd question about his opinion of former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's statement that the United States should redistribute and control Russia's natural wealth.

He replied by saying that such thoughts are exchanged among themselves "politicians in their eyes", but he was not aware of the statement referred to because it was completely fabricated.

It was journalists from the state-owned newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta who fabricated the statement claiming that Russian intelligence was able to read Albright's mind.

For the years that followed, there was apparently no mention of that statement.

Then, in 2015, the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, quietly declared that Albright had said that Russia should not control Siberia or the Far East, and that this was the cause of America's involvement in Ukraine, where Russia was preoccupied with fueling conflict in the eastern part of that Country.

Albright's bogus statement has become a fact that legitimizes Putin's increasingly hostile approach to the West.

The second theory: NATO has turned Ukraine into a military barracks

NATO is Putin's worst nightmare. Its military operations in Serbia, Iraq and Libya have raised fears that Russia will be the alliance's next target.

It is also a convenient bogeyman to stir up anti-Western sentiment among Putin's voters.

In his speeches, Putin used to consider NATO a sympathy for the United States, and the military hand of the "Western grouping" that would suffocate Russia when it was weakened.

Hence, it makes sense that NATO could be the subject of some of the most compelling conspiracy theories, which see the alliance's hand behind popular uprisings around the world.

Since the Ukrainian Maidan revolution in 2004 that toppled pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, Putin and his aides have promoted the idea that Ukraine is turning into a US-dominated puppet state.

In a lengthy article published in July 2021, Putin provided a full explanation of this theory, claiming that the West completely controlled Ukraine, and that NATO was arming it.

In a speech delivered on February 21, days before the war, Putin emphasized that NATO's activities in Ukraine to draw it into the Western axis were the main cause of Russian aggression.

Putin believes that it was NATO that separated the Russians and the Ukrainians, even though they are - in his opinion - one people, and that it was the military activity of the West that turned Ukraine into an anti-Russian state harboring its enemies in order to humiliate Moscow.

The third theory: the opposition wants to destroy Russia from within with the support of the West

This conspiracy theory says that NATO and the West not only threaten Russia externally, but also create problems for it at home.

Since at least 2004, Putin has been suspicious of domestic opposition for fear of a Ukrainian-style revolution.

"Fortified" Russia, which foreign enemies always seek to weaken, has become a feature of the Kremlin's propaganda.

But the Maidan revolution was the point at which the Kremlin's messages converged, claiming that the dissidents were not the only ones who brought sedition to Russia, but that they did so on orders from the West with the aim of spreading chaos in Russia, similar to what is happening in Ukraine.

With this way of thinking, the opposition forces formed a fifth column that infiltrated the motherland, without which it would have remained pure, which led Russia to describe activists, journalists and organizations as "foreign agents."

Fourth theory: The global homosexual movement is a conspiracy against Russia

This claim has been brewing for a decade, and was starkly picked up by Putin in his statement that children in the West can play 5 or 6 male and female roles, threatening Russia's "essential population".

A criminal case was filed in 2012 against Pussy Cat, a Russian feminist punk rock band known for its opposition to the established order and grumbling about the prevailing political situation.

That lawsuit was seen as a turning point.

The Kremlin has sought to portray the sect and its followers as a bunch of subversive, sexist agitators whose goal is to destroy the Orthodox Church and traditional Russian values.

These allegations have spread to include foreign NGOs and homosexual activists, whom Moscow accuses of corrupting Russian children in the cradle.

Theory 5: Ukraine is preparing biological weapons for use against Russia

This conspiracy theory, the Kremlin's latest major hoax, has flourished since the start of the war, although it echoes statements made by Putin in 2017 accusing Western experts of collecting biological material from Russians for scientific experiments.

In the second week of the war, bloggers friends of the regime and after them senior politicians - including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - claimed that Russian intelligence had obtained evidence that the United States and Ukraine were developing biological weapons in the form of bats and birds infested with diseases, with the aim of spreading viruses in Russia.

Even the Russian Defense Ministry indicated that it had discovered documents confirming the cooperation of the two countries (USA and Ukraine) in this.

To add weight to her claim, Russian state media have repeatedly echoed Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, who said the White House was involved in a biological war against Russia in Ukraine.

There is no reliable evidence to prove anything like that, but the story spread throughout Russia and the Kremlin even called the United Nations Security Council a meeting to discuss the matter.