Thread by @bellingcat

With recent talk of Russian disinformation campaigns related to the current tensions around Ukraine we thought it would be timely to revisit some of Russia's previous attempts at disinformation, in particular the four M's that describe their use of satellite and aerial imagery 🧵

The first M is “Misdate”. There have been a number of examples of Russian authorities using legitimate satellite imagery but claiming it is from a different date. One of the most well known is from Russia’s July 21st 2014 press conference on MH17:
bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…

Russian authorities used satellite imagery to claim a Ukrainian Buk missile launcher had been moved from its base on July 17th, the day MH17 was shot down. But comparison of the Russian pictures to Google Earth imagery showed major discrepancies.

An area of trees and bushes that had been cleared by July 1st 2014 had mysteriously reappeared in the Russian satellite imagery that was supposedly from the middle of July.

Elsewhere in the imagery an area of worn away grass from May 2014, which had vanished by June in Google Earth, also reappeared in the Russian satellite imagery from July 2014. This demonstrated Russian authorities had used misdated satellite imagery to make its claim.

In the case of a reported 2015 bombing in the town of Sarmin in Syria, documented in this Guardian video report, Russian authorities also presented misdated satellite imagery

Videos from the scene of the attack showed destroyed structures, including walls, buildings, and utility poles (shown above), yet those structures were still standing in the Russian imagery supposedly showing the location after the attack.

The second M is “Misrepresention” of what satellite imagery shows. In late 2016 the Russian MoD presented imagery it claimed showed that the M10 hospital in Aleppo was undamaged after allegations it had been hit in airstrikes.

This was particularly surprising as the bombing had been caught on CCTV cameras set up at the hospital, capturing the damage caused both inside and outside the hospital building.

A large crater right next to the hospital was also photographed. So, was the Russian MoD lying about the date of the satellite imagery, like they had been about the MH17 satellite images?

In fact they were simply lying that the imagery showed no damage from the attack. A variety of damage was visible in Russia’s own satellite pictures and Google Earth imagery, including a collapsed roof (red), another partly collapsed roof (blue), and the crater (green).

The 3rd M is for “Mislocate”. In October 2015, at the start of Russian air force bombing campaign in Syria, reports from Jisr al-Shughur stated that the Omar bin Al-Khattab mosque had been damaged in a Russian airstrike shown in the below footage:

The Russian MoD denied the mosque was damaged, presenting imagery of the site and stating: “Today the real picture is shown by the means of objective monitoring.” Unfortunately, there was one small problem.

The mosque that had been bombed had been filmed with a small commercial drone some months before it had been bombed, allowing the footage of the aftermath to be geolocated.

It became apparent that the mosque highlighted by the Russian MoD was an entirely different building. Not only that, on the image released they had conveniently covered the site of the actual bombed mosque with an infobox (as seen in the video below).

Finally, the 4th M is ”Modify.” When Russian authorities can’t lie about the time, place or reality itself, it modifies imagery to fit its claims.

For example, the @ArmsControlWonk team analysed MH17 related satellite imagery Russian authorities published and discovered multiple signs of modification.
armscontrolwonk.com/archive/120163…

Russian media was also caught out by modified satellite imagery, when Russia 1 broadcast images supposedly captured by a passing satellite of a fighter jet shooting down MH17.

Web sleuths quickly identified sections of the satellite imagery as copied from various online mapping services, and the image of the aircraft was the top result on Google Image Search for “боинг вид сверху”, or “boeing top view” in English.
bellingcat.com/news/2014/11/1…

Given the Russian authorities’ track record in misusing and abusing satellite and aerial imagery, we hope this provides useful background for some of the potential issues to watch out for as the current crisis with Ukraine and Russia continues.