Hello and welcome to Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government. I'm Bronwyn Maddox.

This week, reports of mass civilian killings by Russian troops followed the weekend discovery of a mass grave in the

Ukrainian town of Boucher. EU leaders have denounced Russia. Oros Johnson has said the killings

could amount to genocide, while the atrocities prompted new sanctions against President Putin's

family. Meanwhile, Russia has rejected responsibility, its state media has dismissed the footage as fake,

and the sights of bodies lying in the streets as staged.

Putin has instead accused Ukraine of genocide in the Donbass region, a claim German Chancellor Olaf Schultz has called ridiculous.

Now, propaganda in warfare is an ancient concept, but has Russia's information campaign in this one

taken it to a new level? Russia's state-controlled media and troll factories all about domestic

support or an attempt to win international support. And how does the West counter fake news and

help ensure that people can trust the information that they see and hear.

For this special edition of Inside Briefing, we're delving into the world of information,

misinformation, disinformation, both in Ukraine and beyond. I'm joined today by two people who know

more than most about the way that information is used and abused. Ian Garner, historian and translator of Russian war propaganda.

His book, Starlingrad Lives,

Stories of Combat and Survival, will be released later this year.

Ian, thanks very much for being here.

Thank you for having me.

And you're not actually here where I am.

You're in fact speaking to us from Canada.

Thank you very much indeed.

And we're very pleased to be joined as well by Will Moy, Chief Executive and founder of Full

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