New voices, old friends: How Russia targets its messaging in the Global South

Atlantic Council | Casey Michel

The Kremlin launched a targeted advertising campaign in late 2025 to promote RT India, a new state-controlled media outlet designed to broadcast tailored Russian propaganda to non-Western audiences. This expansion aims to secure diplomatic neutrality and prevent these nations from supporting Ukrainian defense efforts. Moscow's information strategy relies on historical Soviet-era ties and anti-colonial rhetoric to exploit lingering resentment against Western powers.

Russia denies its own imperial history. To bypass traditional media blocks, the Kremlin increasingly recruits local social media influencers to disseminate pro-Moscow narratives. By hosting international events like the 'For the Freedom of Nations' forum in February 2024, Russian officials frame their geopolitical ambitions as a defense of national sovereignty. Ultimately, this narrative helps Moscow bypass Western sanctions, sustain its shaky wartime economy, which is currently plagued by stagflation and declining oil rents, and maintain critical trade relationships across Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Comment

The launch of RT India in December 2025 reveals a critical doctrinal shift in Russian information operations, which now prioritise geopolitical alignment over traditional cultural messaging. By positioning this state-controlled network as a 'new voice from an old friend,' Moscow targets the information ecosystem of New Delhi and Chennai to dilute support for Ukraine. This RT India information operation relies on a carefully curated anti-colonial narrative that frames Russian geopolitical ambitions in Ukraine as a defense of national sovereignty. The 'For the Freedom of Nations' forum held in Moscow during February 2024 served as a key multilateral platform to institutionalise these rhetorical themes among non-Western delegates.

However, this anti-colonial framing faces severe structural friction due to Moscow's own historical and ongoing imperial practices in Eurasia. While RT India exploits historical Soviet-era goodwill, its messaging actively obscures Russia's past colonisation of Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as its current military occupation of Georgian and Ukrainian territories. Consequently, the long-term efficacy of the RT India campaign depends on maintaining a strict cognitive dissonance within the domestic political discourse of the Indian subcontinent.

Strategic Question for Discussion

If RT India continues to expand its anti-colonial messaging across the subcontinent, does the structural contradiction of Russia's own imperial history in Eurasia eventually break the narrative's efficacy, or can historical Soviet-era goodwill permanently insulate it?

The available evidence suggests that historical Soviet-era goodwill remains highly resilient, largely because local audiences in the Indian subcontinent view European colonial legacies as far more immediate than Russian imperial history in Eurasia. However, as digital platforms increase access to diverse geopolitical perspectives, RT India will likely face growing narrative friction from civil society groups highlighting Moscow's contemporary actions in Ukraine and Georgia. My assessment is that while the anti-colonial narrative will persist, its utility as a tool for active diplomatic mobilization will gradually diminish.

Share your assessment in the comments below.

To read in details click here