"Russia recycled previous narratives and exacerbated tensions in Western society while attempting some propaganda about Russian scientific prowess. Russia’s approach evolved little; it recycled previous narratives, spreading a broad range of COVID-19 disinformation. Evidence supports the theory that Russia seeks to strengthen itself in relative terms by weakening the West, while China seeks to strengthen itself in absolute terms. The Kremlin and the CCP learned from each other. While limited evidence exists of explicit cooperation, instances of narrative overlap and circular amplification of disinformation show that China is following a Russian playbook with Chinese characteristics. Russia is simultaneously learning from the Chinese approach. The largest difference between China and Russia’s information warfare tactics remains China’s insistence on narrative consistency, compared with Russia’s “firehose of falsehoods” strategy. Even with substantially greater resources, this largely prevents Chinese narratives from swaying public opinion or polarizing societies." (Executive summary)

"This report is a compendium of Information Bedlam, a report published in March 2021 examining the preexisting literature on Russian and Chinese COVID-19 information operations; Jabbed in the Back, a report published in December 2021 assessing Russian and Chinese disinformation narratives; and Owning the Conversation, a report published in March 2022 analyzing public and private sector responses to COVID-19 information operations. All three reports were updated in April 2022. The updates are reflected in this report." (Acknowledgements)