Russia’s attention has now turned to Alberta, with potentially destabilizing consequences for Canada. Moscow’s interest in the province is part of a familiar playbook: amplify the angriest arguments inside a Western democracy as evidence that its institutions are weak and divided.

According to research published by Disinfowatch, a group that exposes foreign disinformation campaigns targeting Canada, between late 2025 and early 2026, the Pravda News Network published dozens of stories depicting Alberta as a province systematically exploited by Ottawa. An influence campaign known as Storm 1516 reportedly went further, creating websites such as albertaseparatist.com to circulate fabricated claims—including the assertion that the federal government fleeces $20,000 a year from every Alberta family. Russian state-aligned outlets, like Sputnik and RT, then helped elevate these narratives, alongside inflammatory commentary from sympathetic US influencers on YouTube and X, giving fringe claims the appearance of mainstream debate.

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17 comments in c/canadapolitics@lemmy.ca view that post
[–] 11 points 2 months ago (10 children)

When I said this five months ago I got a bunch of razzing, about how it was only Americans doing it.

It’s coming for everyone. Hell, the UK is about to go under.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (9 children)

    Yes the vast majority of the money is American. The separatist movement is in open collaboration with American politicial and corporate actors. Some 60% of our fossil fuel industry is American-owned and there's cross-polination between it and the separatists. Of course there are other foreign actors and it's good to know their influence but the US is unmatched in scale.

    Some news outlets specifically hammer the non-US actors to distract from the elephant. The Walrus isn't one of them AFAIK so their reporting is indeed intended to inform. I wouldn't take it to mean that America is not the main problem in this context. Well, American capital, not so much American workers.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    MAGA and russia are aligned, yes. Pre-trump, in America it was the NRA, evangelical “Christianity”, and Fox News. All of which have analogues in Canada and all of which have been gunning for the same result ever since Brexit. Calexit, Texit and others were years ahead of Alberta and all directly connected to russia.

    “America is the biggest contributor” is more obfuscating than relevant. Alberta’s MCGA turn would have happened either way. It happened in New Zealand. They’re working on Germany. Is America behind those? Insofar as trump and his fascist toadies, or big oil are part of it, yes, but the direction and planning is all russia.

    It’s beyond debate. It’s been proven for years already.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

    E: I did not doenvote

    Those organizations you mention - Fox, and I'll extend the list to the rest of the large right media network, NGOs and think tanks like The Heritage Foundation, CATO and so on - they are not some directionless NPC orgs that serve and bankroll Russia's direction. This kind of interpretation is ahistoric and not consistent with the material interests behind them. Look up their history, who and why created them. They were created by the American owner class following the leftward shift under FDR that took a lot of owner class money and gave it to the peasants, with the express purpose of moving the country back to a non-dustributive right position. Any current alignment with Russia is tangential and merely tactical and that's a pretty recent phenomena, given some are over half a century old. The MAGA / Trump movement is also not fundamental to this, they're the latest political face of it. They did not exist when the same interests pushed the US to destroy Iraq. They've been openly giving American governments direcrion (e.g. Mandate for Government which Reagan proudly imolemented) since Reagan if not before.

    E2: BTW I don't disagree that MCGA would've happened without American involvement. It would have happened without any external involvement. There have been internal interests for at least 50 years that believe Alberta is getting shortchanged by Canada through equalization payments and other other means. America is supercharging this pre-existing condition for their own material interests - extracting resources for cheaper.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Yes, there are legitimate problems with the decisions Ottawa has made. There's been legitimate problems with the decisions the Alberta government has made as well. That holds true for every province, we're not special in that regard. The smart move is to do our best to make the best of the situation, not nurse old grudges like children throwing temper tantrums.

    Every country has cracks that can be leveraged. If we'd use our bloody heads for something other than a hat rack, we wouldn't let ourselves be suckered by every interest that tries to yank our chains. We had the best education in North America for 30 years. We have zero excuses for getting dog-walked into a wood chipper like this.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    America, Russia, what’s the difference?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    The scal, the target and what we can do about either. Countering what the US does would look very different than countering Russia. We can hurt the US much more than we can hurt Russia, and the US can hurt us back much more than Russia can.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    It's a valid question. Even discounting the strong indication of back-room collusion, they are effectively pursuing the same agenda with the same level of cruelty, lawlessness, and reckless destruction. Even if assuming it's not a coordinated effort, it's a distinction without difference.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago* (3 children)

    What, theirs also Russian money on it too? Fuckin hell

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    There's American money, there's Russian money, there's Chinese money, there's Israeli money, there's Saudi money... everyone has a vested interest in convincing Albertans to do the dumbest thing possible. If this is news to you, you're not paying attention. We've been trying to fight back on this for 20 years without getting turned into a pariah for being nasty about it. No one paid attention.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    crazy considering it seem to not be working and a huge waste of money. hay, you think i could get the money and do a bad enough job to convince albertens to stay instead and get payed by these dickheads?

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  • [+] -6 points 2 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    Do you think that's the only possible outcome of this? Do you know how stupid you sound?

    Russia sows division in countries, because it causes dysfunction. A unified, well functioning country will more often than not want to fight fascism and not just be selfish and insular. Exactly what russia doesn't want while they're pursuing their imperalist agenda.

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  • 16 comments in c/canada@lemmy.ca view that post
    [–] [S] 14 points 2 months ago

    Russian-linked actors stoking division in Alberta separation debate, research says

    The ongoing study has found the discussion about Alberta separation has gone far beyond Canadian borders -- mainly to Russian and American ‘content farms’ and influencers.

    “It’s very clear that there is foreign interference,” said Brian McQuinn, who is the co-director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Data, and Conflict at the University of Regina and the CEO of Cipher AI ...

    Through July and August, researchers found hundreds of websites, headlines, social media content and more generated that “repeated misleading framing.”

    “Their goal is to have us start to turn on each other, is to no longer see someone who disagrees with you as someone who has a different opinion, who still cares about the country, but is actually an enemy of the country,” McQuinn said ...

    McQuinn says Russian-based attempts to influence the debate have been more covert through misleading headlines, articles and false narratives. Russian-linked participants made up the vast majority of influence attempts, the data shows.

    American-based influences have been more overt, through influencers or politicians making comments publicly ...

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  • [–] 14 points 2 months ago

    The “separatists” are just useful idiots. Just like the clownvoyers.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago

    This should go over well with all the Ukranians living in Alberta.

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  • [–] 18 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    I'm Albertan, and entirely unsurprised by this. It'd amazing how readily boomers and blue collar folks will gobble up this rhetoric.

    No shade against being blue collar - just that's largely the demographic eating said slop.

    Anyone with critical thinking skills can see right through this facade and how damaging separation would be.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    A lot of blue collar people do swallow a load of horseshit because of dumbfuck reasons. I say this as someone whonis blue collar.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    That's the point I was trying to make - it ain't all of blue collar people who gobble this stuff down, but boy a lot of them sure love to.

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  • [–] -3 points 2 months ago

    Many white collar asshats exist as well. Some are even leftist that shit on blue collar workers and call them stupid while saying "no shade".

    Saying blue collar workers have no critical thinking skills is beyond stupid and you should feel stupid for writing it.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    So why is the government acting like their hands are tied?

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  • [+] -6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

    Premier Danielle Smith: The leader of the separatist movement is a gun store owner, who strongly opposes Bill C21 and the governments use of the Order in Councils.

    TheWalrus: Them pesky Russians!

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 child)

    Um…. A) Marlaina “Melania” Danielle Smith is an American asset at this point and about as credible and informed as an American Republican (read: not at all)

    B) The fact that some redneck trashablanca Alberta yokel leads the separatist movement does not preclude Russian involvement behind the scenes to foment chaos and manipulate public opinion

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  • [–] -1 points 2 months ago*

    I remember Quebec trying to do the same thing back In 2007, they wanted their own identity and sovereignty and the rest of Canada shamed them for it, eventually the federal government gave in to their demands and here we are today.

    Alberta wants to separate, the rest of Canada is shaming them, they’ll whine and complain until the federal government caves, which is what they’re doing with the pipeline deal.

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