LONDON, 2nd Nov: Britain is facing a propaganda offensive that doesn’t need missiles to cause damage. Kremlin-backed media are flooding social platforms with stories portraying the UK as weak, divided and defenceless. The objective is simple: erode trust, fuel internal conflict and make Britain look like a declining power.

The scale is staggering. And artificial intelligence is making the operation faster, cheaper and potentially far more dangerous.

Russia Disinformation War on UK Reaches New Highs

Russia’s disinformation campaign against Britain has intensified, according to an analysis by risk intelligence firm Osavul, which tracks global hybrid threats and supplies technology to Nato.

The firm examined Russian state-affiliated actors, state-owned media outlets, government agencies, officials and reportedly state-linked channels with a combined audience of 1.37 billion.

In September, these sources published around 40,365 stories about the UK, representing an increase of approximately 15 per cent. Similar levels of output continued in October.

The Independent reported that hundreds of thousands of stories had been pushed across social media over the preceding six months.

The central message was consistent. Britain was supposedly ungovernable, militarily vulnerable and increasingly incapable of protecting itself.

That isn’t random noise. It’s a coordinated attempt to influence how people perceive their own country.

5 Alarming Ways Russian Propaganda Targets Britain

1. Manufacturing a country in collapse

One recurring narrative presents Britain as a nation on the verge of political and economic breakdown.

False claims included allegations that British police were threatening to arrest people for using air conditioners. Another claimed Manchester mayor Andy Burnham was powerless to stop the UK’s collapse.

Other posts exaggerated concerns about winter blackouts and energy shortages. They used genuine media reports about potential power cuts to suggest that Britain was facing a nationwide energy crisis.

The distinction matters. A real concern can become a propaganda weapon when its context disappears.

2. Turning political turmoil into a weapon

Political instability offers propaganda networks an easy target.

Following Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation, Russian-linked accounts described his tenure as being marred by criminal gangs involved in child sexual exploitation.

The messaging drew on existing criticism of the government’s handling of grooming gang investigations.

Osavul identified 1,019 messages from 172 accounts classified as high risk for information manipulation. These messages generated 93,548 engagements around Starmer’s resignation and the collapse of his Labour government.

The strategy isn’t necessarily to invent every controversy. It’s to amplify existing grievances until the public loses confidence in its institutions.

3. Portraying Britain as a military threat

Another strand of Russian propaganda portrays the UK as preparing to attack Russia.

Posts described Britain as deliberately pursuing escalation. One particularly striking false claim alleged that Nato had launched missile strikes against Russia from the London Underground.

The claim followed an exercise in which British forces used a disused Underground platform to simulate operations in the event of an attack.

A military training exercise became an alleged act of aggression. Convenient, isn’t it?

The broader objective is to depict Britain as a hostile power while presenting Russia as the country responding to Western provocation.

4. Exploiting genuine security incidents

Some of the most effective propaganda begins with an actual event.

In July, Iran-linked hackers reportedly shut down a small British power plant. The incident was subsequently reframed as evidence that the UK’s entire energy infrastructure was vulnerable to hostile actors.

Between 22 and 26 August, the narrative generated 337 messages from 117 high-risk accounts and received 1.89 million views.

The British government said the incident never threatened the wider electricity grid.

Yet that reassurance was absent from every version of the story sampled by Osavul.

The firm described this as its clearest example of a genuine event being reframed to create fear about the state’s weakness.

The lesson is straightforward: facts can be weaponised when essential context is stripped away.

5. Using artificial intelligence to accelerate propaganda

Artificial intelligence has changed the economics of information warfare.

Experts warn that AI allows hostile actors to produce and distribute disinformation faster, more cheaply and with greater effectiveness.

Sir Bill Browder, a prominent Vladimir Putin critic and anti-corruption campaigner, warned that Britain had already experienced significant damage.

He said the campaigns had achieved considerable success and cautioned that the situation could become exponentially worse without government intervention.

His warning was particularly blunt: the full potential of AI in information warfare has not yet been seen.

That should concern every country relying on social media as a primary source of news.

Why Britain Has Become Russia’s Main Adversary

Britain’s strong support for Ukraine has placed it firmly in Moscow’s crosshairs.

Experts also point to closer relations between Donald Trump and Russia as a factor behind the changing propaganda landscape.

Former British diplomat Andy Pryce said conversations in Russian state media portraying the UK as an adversary increased dramatically after the Trump administration met the Russian government in Riyadh in February 2025.

Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, argued that Russia benefits from changing attitudes and perceptions rather than simply pushing a single political outcome.

He cited the Brexit referendum as an example of how an emotive issue could be used to intensify divisions.

The aim is to play opposing groups against each other. When citizens spend their time fighting among themselves, confidence in the institutions holding the country together begins to weaken.

And that is precisely the kind of environment an adversary can exploit.

Britain’s Response: Regulation, Education and National Security

The British government has announced plans for a National Centre for Information Defence to counter hostile information campaigns.

The centre is intended to improve the UK’s ability to detect, attribute and disrupt foreign information attacks.

Officials say the initiative will work alongside intelligence agencies, law enforcement and social media companies.

But some experts believe the response needs to go further.

Browder has called for stronger social media regulation and more decisive policymaking. Former defence minister Tobias Ellwood has also argued that national security requires a wider debate about removing falsehoods from the public narrative.

Shadow national security minister Alicia Kearns has emphasised education.

Her argument is that people must learn to question information, challenge misleading claims and think critically, particularly during major incidents that hostile actors may exploit.

These approaches address different parts of the problem. Regulation can limit distribution. Education can improve public resilience. Intelligence work can help identify the networks behind the campaigns.

None of them works particularly well in isolation.