The European Studies Council Central Asia Initiative presents
Daniel Rosenblum, former Ambassador to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan:
“Battling the Firehose of Falsehood: Confronting Russian Disinformation in Central Asia.”
From 2019 to 2025, Ambassador Daniel Rosenblum represented the United States in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan — two nations at the crossroads of Russian, Chinese, Afghan, and Iranian influence. Throughout his tenure, he faced an unrelenting Russian state-media campaign portraying him as the mastermind of elaborate plots to destabilize the region, from operating “bioweapons labs” to opening a phantom NATO base. These narratives, entirely fabricated, were part of a coordinated disinformation strategy designed to erode trust in the United States and fracture partnerships in Central Asia.
Drawing on vivid examples from his time in the region, Rosenblum will explore how Russian disinformation campaigns operate, why they are so effective, and the tools — now largely dismantled — that once allowed the U.S. to counter them. This conversation will examine the stakes of the global information war, the consequences of America’s retreat from it, and the urgent need for renewed strategies to defend truth and U.S. interests abroad.