Infoguerre

As Finland and Sweden joined NATO, Kremlin disinformation campaigns ramped up, deploying classic rhetorical tactics to undermine their decisions. Soon after Finland joined NATO in April 2023, it realised the true costs of membership in the Atlantic Alliance. Life was getting worse for its citizens as the country was ‘sinking’, and its unemployment rate skyrocketing. The cause for all this misery? Finland’s leadership had ‘surrendered’ the country to ‘NATO slavery’, turned it into a ‘colony of the Empire’, and was ‘trying to start a world war’ – and all this without asking ordinary Finns. Similar stories appeared when Sweden joined the Alliance in March 2024. As is usually the case with pro-Kremlin disinformation, not a single bit of these narratives is true. The only truth in these claims is what they tell us about the deranged mindset in the Kremlin. […]

Pro-Kremlin disinformation outlets targeted the European Parliament elections to smear leaders; sow distrust, flood the information space, drive wedges, project Russia’s own shortcomings onto the EU, and finally to dismiss the results. On June 6-9 hundreds of millions of Europeans headed to the polls to cast their vote in the elections to the European Parliament. For the European people this is a crucial exercise of their unalienable democratic rights. For various hostile foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) actors plotting to erode European values, this was also an occasion to attempt undermining democracy through disinformation, information manipulation and inference. […]

The tone of war reporting has changed a bit in leading Russian propaganda outlets. Now, it is simply necessary to destroy cities, villages, power stations, and everything else that supports life in Ukraine. Peace-loving people in calm societies might find it difficult to comprehend and identify the naked brutality of conquest and war when it occurs. It is human to try to console oneself, believing that perhaps it is not so dark and dangerous as it seems. This is the perception Kremlin spin-doctors want to create among international audiences: it is a just military operation pursued according to strict laws of armed conflict. […]

When world leaders took the time to consider a truly multilateral solution for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, the Kremlin doubled down on its increasingly bipolar ‘us vs them’ Cold War mentality to disguise Russia’s imperial appetite for war and conquest as concern for peace and security for all. Yet another busy week has gone by for the Kremlin’s disinformation outlets. Some still continued to target the European elections, including through the pro-Kremlin Doppelganger campaign, and focussed on dismissing the election results or drawing apocalyptic scenarios for the EU. However, the Summit on Peace in Ukraine, organised by Switzerland, was a thorn in Russia’s side that could not go unnoticed, so most prominent pro-Kremlin outlets also focussed on this event. […]

The pro-Kremlin Doppelganger campaign continued its copycatting and reality-distorting activities during the European Parliament elections. Today, the European External Action Service (EEAS) released a report entitled, ‘Doppelganger Strikes Back: FIMI Activities in the Context of the EE24’, as a continuation of our previous coverage of the pro-Kremlin foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) ecosystem’s activities. This latest report provides a comprehensive analysis of the pro-Kremlin FIMI campaign that targeted the 2024 European Parliament elections. The findings uncover the advanced tactics employed by the Doppelganger operation, which we covered earlier, shedding light on the persistent threat posed by foreign actors seeking to undermine democratic processes in Europe. […]

According to the Kremlin, there seem to be wars wherever ‘the West’ puts down its feet. The real aggressor Russia presents itself as a peacemaker. Wars, especially those attributed to others, are a prominent feature of the Kremlin’s attempts to paint the world in its colours. The past week has seen some noteworthy developments with allegations that ‘the West’ is about to launch new wars against Russia. In the Kremlin’s projection ‘the West’ has become synonymous for everyone opposing the policies of Moscow. It helps to define what constitutes modern Russia: everything not Western. In today’s Russia, an old Soviet practice has risen from the grave: glorifying Stalin and promoting the stronger role of the state. […]

Russian state and pro-Kremlin outlets continue attempts to leverage the results of the European Parliament elections against key leaders and the European institutions. From 6-9 June, elections to the European Parliament took place across EU Member States in the largest European democratic exercise. These elections give a governing mandate to the European Parliament for the next five years and will lead to the appointment of the next president of the European Commission and the college of commissioners. In this series of articles, EUvsDISINFO shows examples of key tactics, techniques, and procedures employed by pro-Kremlin manipulators and disinformers targeting the European Parliament elections. […]

The Kremlin’s aging henchmen serve up casual nuclear bluffing, while pro-Kremlin actors aim to deplete and deceive fact-checkers and media organisations alike. The Kremlin’s tactics are, instead of evolving, turning more degenerate and insidious. From nuclear posturing and discrediting our democratic processes to the sprawling ‘Operation Overload’ disinformation campaign, pro-Kremlin disinformers keep sowing division and distrust… Firstly, nuclear threats attempt to sway the risk calculations of decision makers in Western capitals and impact the overall level of military support that Ukraine receives from Western countries. Secondly, they aim to feed fears among Western citizens in an attempt to decrease popular support for Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself against Moscow’s brutal invasion. […]

Russian state and pro-Kremlin outlets try to paint a negative picture of Europe and the European elections to avoid uncomfor-table comparisons with Russia’s own situation. From 6-9 June, the next elections to the European Parliament will take place across EU Member States in the largest European democratic exercise for hundreds of millions of people. These elections will give a mandate to the European Parliament for the next five years. In this series of articles, we show examples of key tactics, techniques, and proce-dures employed by pro-Kremlin manipulators and disinformers targeting the European Parliament elections. We examine attempts to smear leaders; sow distrust, doubt, and division; flood social media with falsehoods trying to turn the public against Ukraine; and project Russia’s own shortcomings onto the EU to distract from the reality of Putin’s Russia. We will also follow how the election results are portrayed by the pro-Kremlin disinformation ecosystem. […]