About this project

This website is an independent, non-commercial initiative created and maintained by a small group of researchers. We work on a voluntary basis and are not affiliated with, funded by, or acting on behalf of any government, political party, company, intelligence service, or other organisation. The deliberate choice not to name individual contributors here reflects the sensitive nature of the subject; it does not change the project’s open, reference-oriented purpose.

Our mission

Russian state propaganda relies on a recognisable vocabulary — a set of recurring terms, slogans, and narratives that are repeated until they sound like neutral description. Words such as “denazification”, “Russian World”, or “special military operation” carry a great deal of political freight that is easy to miss in translation or in passing.

Our mission is to document, define, and put these terms in context so that readers can recognise them, understand where they come from, and see how they are used. We aim to:

• help readers identify propaganda framing when they encounter it;
• provide clear, sourced, and neutral reference entries rather than opinion pieces;
• support media literacy among researchers, journalists, educators, students, and the general public;
• preserve a multilingual record that is useful across language communities.

What you will find here

• A multilingual dictionary of propaganda terms, narratives, and information-warfare techniques — currently in English, Russian, and Georgian — each with a definition, its origin, how it is typically used, and references.
• Cross-references between related terms, so the connections between narratives are visible.
• Planned sections documenting Russian war crimes (for example in Georgia and Ukraine), which are currently under development.

The toolbox of Russian information warfare

Loaded vocabulary is only the most visible layer. The same apparatus draws on a wider, overlapping set of techniques — what Russian military doctrine calls information confrontation (информационное противоборство), spanning both an information-technical (cyber) and an information-psychological dimension. This project documents and cross-references these methods, not just the words:

• Propaganda terms & narratives — the loaded vocabulary that reframes aggression as defence, occupation as liberation, and dissent as treason.
• Disinformation & misinformation — fabricated facts, forged documents, staged “evidence”, and fake leaks designed to be repeated before they can be checked.
• Psychological operations (PSYOP) — messaging engineered to induce fear, exhaustion, apathy, and learned helplessness in a target audience.
• Psycholinguistic attacks — euphemism, loaded labels, and framing that reshape how an audience thinks before it reasons.
• Demoralization & subversion — the long game of active measures: eroding morale, trust, and social cohesion over years rather than news cycles.
• Reflexive control — feeding an adversary carefully shaped information so that they “freely” choose the course of action you wanted.
• Whataboutism & victim reversal — deflecting criticism with false equivalence and recasting the aggressor as the real victim.
• Trolling, bots & astroturfing — manufacturing the appearance of grassroots consensus through coordinated inauthentic accounts.
• Historical revisionism & memory politics — rewriting the past to legitimise present-day claims and obligations.
• Cyber-enabled influence — hack-and-leak operations and platform manipulation that pair the technical and psychological halves of the doctrine.

Our approach

• Descriptive, not partisan. We describe how propaganda language works; we are not campaigning for any party or government.
• Sourced. Entries cite their sources so readers can verify and read further.
• Multilingual by design. The same concept is presented across languages so it is useful to different audiences.
• Open to correction. We are a small team and we make mistakes. If you spot an error or can add a source, please contact us.

Use of AI

We use artificial-intelligence tools to help build this site — including aspects of its design, the drafting of entries, and the translation of content between languages. These tools let a small volunteer team cover far more ground than would otherwise be possible.

AI is used only as a tool, and all content is reviewed by people. It is an assistant, not an authority: every entry is checked and edited by a human, and its factual claims are verified against the cited sources. Machine translation in particular can introduce subtle errors of nuance, so if you notice a mistranslation or an inaccuracy, please tell us — corrections are always welcome and help us improve.

A book may follow

Beyond this website, we are working towards a possible book based on this research — a more structured, edited treatment of the material gathered here. This is a long-term ambition rather than a firm commitment, and there is no fixed publication date yet. Any updates will be announced on the site.

Get involved

Suggestions, corrections, additional sources, and translation help are all welcome. See Contact us to get in touch.