How much will Russia spend on propaganda in 2026?
The Russian Federation plans to spend nearly $1.8 billion on state propaganda in 2026, while China invests approximately $10 billion annually in international information operations.
This was officially announced by Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council, while commenting on the results of a recent meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
The authoritarian regimes plan to fully synchronize their efforts to manipulate global public opinion.
According to the head of the Center, the new joint declaration signed by representatives of Moscow and Beijing devotes separate and very detailed attention to strategic cooperation in the field of media and information policy.
In particular, high-ranking officials have officially agreed to maximize cooperation between leading state-controlled media outlets, significantly expand digital diplomacy, and jointly counter so-called “disinformation.”
In essence, this involves creating a single coordination center to wage hybrid warfare against democratic countries.
Andriy Kovalenko revealed the hidden meaning of the signed intergovernmental agreements in detail.
He emphasized: “Translated from diplomatic language—they are to synchronize information campaigns and control narratives even more strictly. This is an attempt to build a global information ecosystem where Russia, China, and their partners will explain to the world how exactly the world order should be understood, as well as Russia’s war against Ukraine, the U.S. operation in Iran, and other matters.”
According to current estimates by experts at the Center for Countering Disinformation, the scale of funding for destructive information campaigns by dictatorial regimes is growing rapidly.
While China and Russia allocate budgets in the billions, their other military-political ally—Iran—consistently directs hundreds of millions of dollars toward similar geopolitical goals.
Such financial injections allow them to maintain a vast network of bot farms, hacker groups, and English-language pseudo-news outlets around the world.
Photo: Russian propaganda has spread a new fake story about Zelenskyy
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected Russia’s accusations regarding Ukraine’s alleged attack on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant
