The good machine of truth

In his blog, Navalny gave the following definition to the project ^[8] :

The Good Propaganda Machine is people, its participants, who have undertaken voluntary obligations to participate in the dissemination of truthful information. In that volume and in the format in which they feel comfortable

An important feature of the “good machine” was to become, according to Navalny, its decentralization ^[9] . The ultimate goal of the project, according to Navalny, is to reduce the level of support for members of the United Russia party, including Putin , by creating a system that brings information to up to fifty million people ^[10] .

DMP positioned itself as an alternative and competitor to the “Angry Propaganda Machine”, that is, the official Russian media ^{[11] [12] [13]} .

The focus of the impact of the DMF methods :

• creating an agenda for abuses and corruption of authorities that do not censor the media;
• dissemination of information and its assessments in social circles.

Types of methods ^[14] :

• by computer;
• in everyday life;
• active agitation;
• special (requiring special technical knowledge and skills).

The creation of the agenda occurs during the transmission of a one-sided, impersonal message to an audience that is closed by political censorship.

General methods for creating the agenda proposed by the DMF ^{[13] [15] [16] [17] [18]} :

• renaming wifi network and bluetooth ;
• reposts on social networks and blogs;
• leaflets in the elevator; layout of leaflets in the mailboxes of neighbors;
• stamp imprint on banknotes;
• graffiti on dirty fences and asphalt;
• others.

Dissemination of news through social circles is a discussion with friends of news about abuses of power and corruption, which occurs only through dialogue .

Navalny expressed the idea of ​​the “Good Propaganda Machine” at an opposition rally on Pushkin Square in Moscow on March 5, 2012 . He proposed the creation of a structure with which the fight against state propaganda is possible ^[5] .

According to Navalny, he realized the importance of the mass campaign, observing the election campaign of Vladimir Putin . At the same time, Navalny does not consider himself the author of the idea of ​​this project, speaking of collective authorship ^[10] .

Navalny also points to the continuity of the project in relation to previous projects: RosAgit , the campaign " United Russia - Party of Rogues and Thieves " ^[10] .

The first stage of the project was the launch on May 29, 2012 of the site “Mashina.org”, which collects information about volunteers who are ready to participate in the project. Volunteers were invited to register on the site and talk about themselves and about the methods of planned propaganda ^[19] . Having processed the data, the creators plan to draw conclusions and build a structure for more effective activities of people who have expressed their willingness to participate in the project ^{[11] [20]} .

A few hours after the launch, the site worked with significant interruptions, and then was turned off. According to Navalny, a DDoS attack was made on the site ^[19] . According to Navalny’s report in LiveJournal, 2,975 people were registered at the time of disconnection ^[21] . According to a blog post by Vladislav Naganov , as of 13:52 GMT on May 31, 2012, 8,868 users were authorized in the Machine. According to Naganov, the DDoS attack only fueled public interest in the project ^[12] .

• In June 2012, the campaign “Campaigning for Money” began, in the framework of which impressions with negative assessments of the United Russia party were applied to ruble denominations ^[22] . According to Maxim Kononenko , such banknotes, although they do not lose solvency, should be considered dilapidated and withdrawn from circulation ^[23] .
• On June 21-25, 2012, the Krasnodar project was carried out, within the framework of which information about corruption in the Krasnodar Territory was distributed among the residents of the region using personal messages on VKontakte ^[24] . According to Navalny, about 9 thousand people sent a total of about 100 thousand personal messages ^[25] . The effectiveness of the project as a political tool was called into question ^[26] .
• On June 29, 2012, an action of the political enlightenment “Agitate Gagarin” took place in the city of Gagarin (Smolensk region) . The rally brought together 40 people who came to Gagarin to talk about abuses of power, hand out leaflets and reports “ Putin. Corruption ”and“ Putin. Results ” ^[27] .
• On July 1, 2012, supporters of the Democratic Party began distributing leaflets on behalf of the United Russia party , which reported on the connection between housing and utility tariff increases and the low level of support for the party and Putin V.V. in the region. By the end of 2012, Navalny planned to hang up to a million of these leaflets ^[28] The United Russia Party stated that these fakes are a violation of the law ^{[29] [30]} .
• On July 16, 2012, as a reaction to the law on libel adopted by the State Duma, DMP supporters distributed leaflets on behalf of United Russia , which stated that the slogan “ United Russia - a party of crooks and thieves ” is slanderous. The purpose of the leaflet was to disseminate this opinion among the population ^[31] .
• On July 26, 2012, Alexey Navalny initiated the action “ Bastrykin - a foreign agent ” in connection with the fact that Alexander Bastrykin had a residence permit in the Czech Republic ^{[32] [33] [34]} .
• On August 6, 2012, as part of the DMP, an addition for the Google Chrome browser was presented, which automatically replaces phrases such as: "United Russia" with the "Party of Rogues and Thieves", " Vladimir Putin " with "Vladimir Obeshalkin", "Bastrykin" with " foreign agent Bastrykin " ^[35] .
• On September 29 and October 6, 2012, activists of the Democratic Party of Russia held the campaign “Agitate Khimki!” In support of the candidate for mayor of the city, Evgenia Chirikova . The actions were attended, in particular, by Alexei Navalny, Ilya Yashin, Mikhail Shats, Tatyana Dogileva and Ksenia Sobchak. During these actions, up to 200 activists pasted leaflets around the city and talked with residents ^{[36] [37]} . On October 3-7, 2012, a DMP project called Khimki was carried out, similar to the previously implemented Krasnodar project. Within its framework, more than 16 thousand personal messages were sent to residents of Khimki via the social network VKontakte ^[38] .
• On November 12, 2012, the Sasha Mercedes campaign was launched (jointly by RosPil and DMP) with the goal of distributing leaflets allegedly on behalf of the governor, condemning and ridiculing the planned purchase of Mercedes cars by the government of the Astrakhan region for a total amount of 11.7 million rubles. The very next day after this, the governor canceled the purchase ^[39] .

The DMF also created several videos, in particular: “Oil and Gas Dependence of Russia”) ^{[40] [41]} , “NATO Air Base Ulyanovsk” (dedicated to the NATO transshipment base in Ulyanovsk ).

DMP activists can be accused of illegal political propaganda and actions aimed at inciting aggression against the authorities. On the other hand, the DMF does not direct civic activity at rallies ^[18] .

According to British journalist Ben Jude ^{[ who is this? ]} ( European Council on Foreign Relations ), the DMP project failed, it turned into several Facebook groups, a system for sending spam on social networks and websites with posters. ^[42]

In 2012, a leaflet distributed on behalf of the United Russia party was distributed through the DMP, stating that housing and utilities tariffs directly depend on support in the region for this party. The Vologda City Court in October found no signs of extremism in the leaflet. However, the regional Vologda court found this leaflet extremist, according to the indictment, the authors of the leaflet tried to exploit ethnic hatred, indicating that Dagestan and Ingushetia had the lowest housing and communal services tariffs. Moreover, the opposition Vologda public movement “Together: Freedom. Own. Responsibility ”noted that the leaflet reflects statistical data available in open sources, and the residents of the mentioned regions“ do not constitute a single community from the point of view of a possible subject of extremist activity ” ^[43] .

• Anti-corruption fund

• The site of the project “Kind truth machine”
• Vladimir Tsybulsky. "Good machinist." Navalny trolled over United Russia , Lenta.ru, 2013-07-19