Michel Chossudovsky is a Canadian economist and author. He is a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Ottawa. He also presides and serves as director of the Centre for Research on Globalization which operates the website globalresearch.ca, founded in 2001, which broadcasts falsehoods and conspiracy theories.
Chossudovsky is repeatedly quoted by or appears on the Kremlin-backed RT or in material published by the Sputnik news agency. The Centre for Research on Globalization regularly posts content from both outlets.
In 2017, the Centre for Research on Globalization was blamed by information warfare specialists at NATO’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence for playing a key part in the spread of pro-Russian propaganda. In November 2017, The Globe and Mail conveyed that the centre’s website was “in the sights” of NATO information warfare specialists examining “the online spread of pro-Russia propaganda and disinformation.”
According to the Globe, NATO’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence acknowledged that the site was recreating a “key accelerant role in supporting popularize articles with little basis in fact that also occur to fit the narratives being pushed by the Kremlin” and the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.
The report explained the site as an “online refuge for conspiracy theorists” and indicated that NATO specialists regarded it as “a link in a concerted effort to damage the credibility of mainstream Western media—as well as the North American and European public’s trust in country and public institutions.”
A report by the U.S. State Department in August 2020 blamed the website for being a proxy for a Russian disinformation campaign. An August 2020 report by the U.S. State Department Global Engagement Center commented that Global Research is, by a considerable margin, the most accessed proxy website associated with the pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign. By the estimation of the report’s authors, it has earned 12.4 million page views, with around 351,247 readers for each article. Chossudovsky is a board associate of other pro-Russian websites which endeavour to spread conspiracy theories.
