Distorted Reality: Russian Media Narratives About the Canadian and US Arctic

Garner and Dalziel's June 2025 analysis of how Russian state media constructs and deploys narratives about the Canadian and US Arctic is a technically rigorous contribution to the FIMI literature in a geopolitical domain that receives less attention than it warrants. Drawing on an extensive Russian-language media corpus, the report maps the narrative architecture through which Russia portrays NATO Arctic presence as aggression, reframes Canadian sovereignty claims as provocations, and positions itself as a legitimate Arctic power threatened by Western militarisation.

The Arctic dimension matters strategically. As climate change opens new shipping routes and resource access, the Arctic is becoming an increasingly important geopolitical contest — and Russia's information operations in this domain are a component of a broader strategic effort to shape international perceptions of legitimate Arctic governance. For practitioners working on FIMI in geopolitical contexts beyond the electoral and social division domains that dominate most counter-FIMI analysis, this report demonstrates what domain-specific narrative analysis looks like when done rigorously on Russian-language primary sources.