Over night Anti-Mandate protestors went from contesting the Public Health Act 2020 to the glorification of the Russian President Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine.

Active measures is a form of political warfare conducted by the Soviet or Russian government since the 1920s. It includes offensive programs such as disinformation, propaganda, deception, sabotage, destabilization, subversion, and espionage.

Anti Mandate conspiracy theorists and groups are being fed pro Putin disinformation through Facebook messenger. A steady flow of disinformation is fed to New Zealand citizens via proxies of countries that are sympathetic to Russia.

This is similar to how the Russian intelligence apparatus spread the conspiracy theory Qanon they found an existing conspiracy theory and amplify it by pushing it out through messenger for their victims to share. This is similar to a new conspiracy theory portraying Putin as a hero fighting against the deep state a cabal of global elites.

Many New Zealanders are starting to parrot Putin’s misguided propaganda that Ukraine is loaded with Neo Nazis intent on attacking and subjugating Russia. That Russia is the victim of Ukrainian aggression when the facts simply don’t support that theory. One obvious indication is anti mandate protagonists have entirely changed their focus to an appreciation of Putin with little focus on their original cause of mandates.

The New Zealand Government are aware of the information attack on our nations sovereignty this is why they took unprecedented trade sanctions against Russia the ministry of foreign affairs has never taken such drastic measures against any nation.

If left unchecked eventually a large percentage of the misinformed population are going to support Russia and Vladimir Putin. The New Zealand government needs a debunking apparatus funded by New Zealand on air that can investigate and paralyze this disinformation campaign before thousands of New Zealanders start to contest our foreign policy and support our foes.

The New Zealand Government should conduct a royal commission of inquiry into disinformation and misinformation that is dividing our nation.