How propagandists create fake experts and analysts

"This is an attack of paranoid delirium" "expert" Andrei Vajra told the state agency BelTA commenting on "Poland's desire to revive the Commonwealth" (that is, obviously stupid). The agency itself called him an analyst, and even the editor-in-chief of the information and analytical project. This way the words of the speaker (who, by the way, a few years ago released the video "Why Belarus is doomed") acquire some weight.

In this story we look into how propagandists create "experts" and "analysts" to promote their ideas.  

"Political scientist", "analyst", "famous expert"

BelTA's interlocutor Vajra, whom we have already mentioned, is a pro-Russian blogger who moved from Ukraine to Russia after the Revolution of Dignity and there became an interlocutor of such figures as Dmitry "Goblin" Puchkov and Vladimir Solovyov. For more than a decade he has been working on his sites - once it was "Ruska Pravda", now - "Alternativa".

The "expertise" of the speaker boils down to talking about how bad Ukraine is, and to doing it under the guise of a Ukrainian analyst for Russian speakers. Does he have a Ukrainian audience? Are there any arguments other than manipulation? Of course not.
 

Propagandists have many such "interlocutors": for example, the "European political scientist" Anatoly Livry (in fact, a Russian émigré writer who now comments on politics) or the "Polish political scientist" Mateusz Piskorski (suspected in Poland of spying for Russia).

Of course, if we say that we are talking with a "Polish expert," the impression is that we are talking with someone with a minimal reputation and fame, and not an almost random citizen of Poland who is "hyped" only in the Russian media. 

"Famous media outlet"

Similarly to experts, propagandists like to deal with publications. They refer to some "authoritative media" from another country as a supplier of relevant information, while such sites usually turn out to be marginal.