Scaring Assad
There are those who say that Russia supports Donald Trump’s candidacy in the US presidential elections. Is there any truth to this?
The Digest looked for evidence in Russian state media, in this instance the Twitter feed of Sputnik, Russia’s state-funded outlet for international audiences.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton do indeed fare very differently in the messages posted to Sputnik’s 143.000-strong Twitter audience.
Emails, finances and illness
In the last four weeks, tweets about Hillary Clinton are sometimes neutral, but mainly negative. The controversy about her emails and questions about her campaign finances figure very prominently as well as her “secret illness”.
At the same time, the images and GIFs used for her are unflattering and in particular, the only tweet speculating about her likely winning the elections comes with an unflattering GIF using footage from 1996. Personal attacks are also included: A tweet quotes a former advisor alleging Mrs Clinton is “beholden to scumbags” and another one suggests to “use a picture of @HillaryClinton to scare Assad“.
Spreading optimism about Mr. Trump
Recent Sputnik tweets referring to Donald Trump, on the other hand, spread optimism about his candidacy: Mr Trump is “doing better than polls suggest“, Sputnik posts while another tweet debunks “myths that Donald Trump has no chance” of winning.
Several recent tweets also announce that he “surges ahead of Hillary in the polls” and suggest that US media deliberately hide this fact. Media bias also serves to explain Mr Trump’s lagging behind in the polls: On 14 August, Sputnik highlights that he could beat Mrs Clinton by a 20% margin “in proper coverage conditions”.
On 9 August, a commentator likens the “fierce media crossfire” for Donald Trump to a “political assassination“. Tweets about Mr Trump also contain accusations of racism and antisemitism against his staffers, but in the period analysed, the only negative message about Mr Trump concerns the debts of his companies.
On the candidates’ attitudes towards Russia, Sputnik quotes how Donald Trump calls Russia a “natural ally” and says Hillary wants “something worse than the cold war”. At the same time, Clinton is accused of blaming “Putin, Russia for everything bad, ever” and conducting a campaign of “anti-Russia hysteria”.
Sputnik also has a view on the question which outside powers support presidential candidates. On 23 August, it asks rhetorically: “If @realDonaldTrump is ‘Russia’s candidate’, is @HillaryClinton the #Saudis’ pick?“.