How Authoritarian Regimes in Russia and Iran Use Fear and Disinformation to Subdue Democracy
By Alexander Donlon, ‘22 International Affairs, Madison Center Democracy Fellow
While it is not yet definitive that the world faces a global democratic crisis, it does face an alarming trend of strengthening authoritarian control across several regions. The number of authoritarian regimes globally has increased each of the last five years, with countries showing greater resolve towards holding onto their power. Studying two of these countries, the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran, provides a wealth of knowledge into how these regimes are able to maintain control. While Iran has successfully been able to quell ongoing protests over women’s rights and unjust executions, Russia has been able to keep democratic protests in the country from having an effect on its extralegal invasion of Ukraine. Interestingly, both countries have used largely the same authoritarian playbook, characterized by the use of fear and misinformation to keep democracy and people subdued.
The first way that authoritarian regimes hold onto power is by mobilizing a fear of violence. This goes against international laws regarding the political rights of all global citizens, who are entitled to freedom of expression amongst other civil liberties protecting their wellbeing. The most troubling way in which the Islamic Republic of Iran achieves mass fear of the government is through targeted public executions of dissenters, which has happened several times in the last several months. The regime is also seen to engage in extreme uses of police force to quell protests, killing potentially hundreds of people.
Meanwhile, Russian president Vladimir Putin has followed the same playbook, and has increased his country’s repressive apparatus to maintain control. Putin has limited political dissent through altering the country’s prison terms to project fear of serious criminal punishment into would-be protesters. Putin has also shown a willingness to brand anyone who stands in his way as a “national traitor”. One has to look no further than the jailing of Putin’s political opposition candidate, Alexei Navalny, who has remained in solitary confinement since March 2022 on bogus charges. Both leaders have also shown an interest in monitoring online spaces and levying punishments on any dissent that is found, opening up questions regarding privacy and freedom of speech.
The fear that these leaders are able to put into the minds of their constituents is their biggest tool. As leaders become more audacious and desperate, this trend poses a serious threat to civil liberties worldwide.
The second way that Russia and Iran protect their authoritarian power is through engaging in comprehensive disinformation campaigns. If citizens are kept in the dark towards what is actually occurring, they are less likely to protest against it. Both Iran and Russia masterfully use a combination of media control and a careful creation of national narratives to achieve this effect. First, accurate and unbiased media is hard to come by. Whereas media channels in the U.S. like Fox News and MSNBC are owned by private companies and are subject to competing interests, Russian and Iranian news is controlled and regulated by the state, which works tirelessly to keep disparaging information out.
Both regimes also have become adept at creating narratives of victimization and misattribution of responsibility that self-justify their own actions. Iran has framed its uprisings as an American ploy to weaken the regime and exert dominance over the west, and that any internal protests are “separatist” ploys to weaken the regime’s rightful mandate to rule. Behind this, Iran has constructed a national identity of victimhood, whether real or perceived, that the United States are their oppressor and principal enemy. Likewise, Russia has continued to frame its “special operation” in Ukraine under similar pretenses. Not only has Russia not recognized that its war is in fact a war, instead consistently misrepresenting it as a “special operation” as to dodge international and domestic accountability, it has also misattributed this responsibility to its enemies. Russia has routinely relied on the idea that its conflict in Ukraine represents a necessitated retaliatory stand against western aggression, while also depicting the people in Ukraine as Nazis in order to invoke lasting World War II national sentiment among the Russian people. These examples serve as clear reminders that authoritarian governments resolve to hold onto power, regardless of what rules they have to break. In a time when correct information is so vital to democracy, global autocracies stand in opposition to global democratic rights.
The question remains, how does democracy prevail? To combat these strategies, the flow of unbiased media and meaningful protest remain important, even if under the thumb of repression they seem difficult. It is important for all global citizens, not just ones living under repression to exercise civil liberties. While it is true that combating these regimes is easier said from the outside than done from the inside, identification of strategies can help raise the pressure against authoritarian governments, which will help to set the stage for whatever acts of civic courage may come next.
Additional Reading:
Russias-top-five-persistent-disinformation-narratives
Iran-protests-highlight-its-crisis-legitimacy
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