Kremlin-controlled media outlets including RIA Novosti, RT, and Lenta.ru are circulating false claims that Western countries have secretly recognized Russia's victory in the war against Ukraine and are secretly preparing to capitulate. These assertions stem from an op-ed written by American columnist Patrick Lawrence and published by the pro-Russian online outlet Consortium News (CN). Lawrence wrote:
“The fundamental problem here is that Kiev [sic] and its sponsors are unable to accept defeat. I concluded more than a year ago that Ukraine and its Western powers had lost the war — ‘effectively lost,’ I thought for a time, but then I dropped ‘effectively.’ For a good long time now what we’ve watched is nothing more than postwar gore. If you have lost a war but cannot admit you have lost because the West must never lose anything, you are down to the old game of pretend.”
Lawrence compared the current moment to the final days of World War II — putting Putin’s Russia in the role of the Allied forces and Ukraine and its present-day Western partners in the position of Nazi Germany.
“It is as if the Germans, if you do not mind the comparison, insisted they set the terms of surrender in May 1945… When a settlement is finally reached it will not be termed a surrender — you can count on this — but this is what it will come to… I am confident Moscow will hold to its currently expressed demands, which I consider eminently just and not at all excessive.”
However, on the Russia social media platform Yandex.Zen, RIA Novosti repackaged the same column under a headline reading, “Victory Near: The West Reluctantly Prepares for Capitulation.” The contradiction leaves readers unclear: does the West believe it cannot lose, or is it actually preparing to surrender?
In his piece, Lawrence asserts — without offering any evidence — that Ukraine lost the war more than a year ago. He also peddles Kremlin narratives, claiming that neo‑Nazis “control [Ukraine’s] civilian and military administration” and that “Washington and its clients in Kiev needed the neo–Nazis, especially but not only the armed militias, because they could be relied upon to fight the Russians with the sort of visceral animus the occasion required.”
Both Lawrence and CN have a history of propagating pro‑Kremlin disinformation. In 2017, Lawrence authored a controversial article in The Nation, arguing that the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails was an “inside job,” not a Russian operation. He cited the blog “The Forensicator,” later revealed to be run by British activist Tim Leonard, who spread altered documents from Russian military hackers. After scrutiny, initial cybersecurity sources withdrew their support from the piece, and The Nation eventually removed the article. Its editor, Katrina vanden Heuvel, publicly distanced the magazine from Lawrence’s claims.
Lawrence also promoted conspiracy theories surrounding the death of former DNC staffer Seth Rich, speculating — without evidence — that he was killed for leaking emails.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Lawrence continued publishing disinformation. Notably, he described the discovery of mass graves in Izium — discovered after occupying Russian forces were driven out in the fall of 2022 — as “atrocity porn,” questioning the involvement of Russian troops.
CN was founded in 2011 by the award-winning investigative journalist Robert Parry, who is best known for his reporting on the Iran-Contra arms deals and the CIA’s role in cocaine trafficking during Nicaragua’s civil war in the 1980s. However, even before Parry’s death in 2018, the outlet had taken on an overtly pro‑Kremlin editorial line.
In 2018, the Canadian publication The Walrus analyzed the way CN spreads falsehoods with the help of sites linked to Russia. Parry’s site claimed that the White Helmets — a humanitarian group that provides emergency medical aid in conflict zones — had taken part in chemical attacks on civilians in Syria alongside rebel groups. In reality, those attacks were carried out by the government of then-President Bashar al-Assad, as was confirmed by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
To support its claims, CN cited the website of Canadian conspiracy theorist and antisemite Michel Chossudovsky. The Insider has previously reported that Chossudovsky is among the first to amplify fake stories from questionable pro-Kremlin sources, and in return, his articles are frequently cited by RT and Sputnik. Among Chossudovsky’s most extreme claims are that the United States funds al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, and that Osama bin Laden was a CIA agent.
Chossudovsky’s site engages in cross-posting with both CN and Russia’s Strategic Culture Foundation.The Insider has also reported on the Strategic Culture Foundation: it is registered in Moscow at the headquarters of Novikombank, a subsidiary of the state defense corporation Rostec. The foundation has been sanctioned by the UK, Canada, and Ukraine for spreading Russian disinformation.
And last but not least, another one of CN’s cited experts has also drawn scrutiny from The Insider. Daniel Patrick Welch, described by Russian media as a “political analyst,” is in fact a singer and soap salesman.