Infoguerre

The EUvsDisinfo Database has logged more than 17 000 examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation since 2015. We take a closer look to see how the disinformation has degenerated and radicalised over the years. The EuvsDISINFO team has been building the EUvsDisinfo project since 2015 to better forecast, address, and respond to Russia’s ongoing disinformation campaigns affecting the European Union, its Member States, and countries in the shared neighbourhood. Since day one, a cornerstone of the project has been the EUvsDisinfo Database – the only public, searchable, open-source repository of its kind, tirelessly collecting and archiving examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation. This Database allows the public to follow how disinformation develops, travels, mutates and becomes interlinked with political dynamics and how it sometimes starts by itself or amplifies existing issues. […]

Amidst Lithuania’s 2024 presidential elections, a Belarus-linked information manipulation campaign aimed to undermine candi-dates and erode public trust in the democratic process. In the days leading up to Lithuania’s 2024 presidential elections, which were held in May 2024, a foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) operation developed. It turned out to have been initiated and coordinated by Belarus-related entities. initiated and coordinated by Belarus-related entities. The operation targeted some of the candidates. The presumed effect was possibly to discredit the candidates and to discourage Lithuanian citizens from voting by presenting the election as meaningless whilst also framing Lithuania as a puppet of the West. […]

Russian state and pro-Kremlin outlets try to flood information spaces with falsehoods to turn the public against Ukraine. rom 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 procedures 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; 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. Stay tuned! […]

Kremlin’s disinformation outlets drum up a siege mentality in Russia, spread false fears of a looming NATO invasion from Ukraine, accuse the West of stealing Russia’s frozen assets to fight ‘proxy’ wars, and meddle in Georgia to fuel contention around the passing of the ‘transparency law’. vThe Kremlin’s disinformation peddlers have long since tried to build the perception of Russia being allegedly under siege by malicious external forces, usually of Anglo-Saxon origins. This has been one of the red threads weaving through the Kremlin’s disinformation about Russia’s war against Ukraine. Incidentally, in a pendulum-like motion, as the support for Ukraine swells, so does the volume of the pro-Kremlin voices accusing the West of aggression against Russia and demonstra-tively drawing meaningless lines in the sand, based on thinly veiled threats of a nuclear holocaust. […]

In times of crisis, societies across the world have been historically susceptible to conspiracy theories. The Kremlin disinformation machine is gleefully aware of that fact and exploit it without hesitation. Most people are naturally suspicious. And that’s not a bad thing. In fact, our innate inclination to doubt and question everything we experience may well be one of the core reasons behind the survival and flourishing of our species since the dawn of time. However, with the overabundance of information now available, our inclination to suspicion and scepticism can also work to our disadvantage. How? It also makes us susceptible to conspiracy theories, and exposes our vulnerability to manipulation. Let’s have a look at how and why conspiracy theories work to manipulate our perception of reality. […]

Russian state and pro-Kremlin disinformation outlets try to foment discontent inside EU Member States, exploit existing political issues and erode the credibility of the EU system. 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 procedures employed by pro-Kremlin manipulators and disinformers targeting the European Parliament elections. […]

The Kremlin is accusing Zelenskyy of a lack of legitimacy, the EU of censorship, and the ‘global elite’ of attempting to assassinate Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. The likely goal is to divert attention from the situation in Russia. In Russia, there is no more important subject for Kremlin propagandists than blaming others, especially Brussels and Washington, for wrongdoings. They use it to deflect attention away from domestic issues among ordinary Russians and away from the grinding war against Ukraine with its high casualty rates. Shifting blame also helps to flood and pollute the international information space. […]

The Kremlin’s disinformation ecosystem reverberates with Putin’s lies after his inauguration and the 9 May parade, rewriting history and promising a bright future for all. Meanwhile, a new era has dawned in the land of the Kremlin, promising a bountiful future to all who will swear fealty to the glorious leader. Admittedly, the Great Patriotic War still rages on to ‘denazify’ Ukraine, and aggressive NATO troops are trying to encircle Fortress Russia, but the economy is booming and the West is crumbling so rapidly that judges from Poland are escaping to Belarus to expose the sorry state of affairs at home. This description may feel like it’s coming from an alternate reality, but this was the story the Kremlin’s disinformation mouthpieces were touting this week. Let’s unravel it. […]

As the widespread protests against the ‘foreign agents’ law in Georgia unfolded, so did the onslaught of pro-Kremlin disinformation, resorting to the usual tropes of accusing the West for plotting a revolution and decrying ‘double standards’. When protestors took to the streets of Tbilisi first in March 2023 and then again in April 2024 to express their opposition to a draft law on foreign agents, later renamed as the draft law on transparency of foreign influence, which was quickly dubbed as the Russian law, winding its way through parliament, the response of the pro-Kremlin disinformation machine was as swift as it was predictable: the West is trying to incite unrest and provoke a ‘colour revolution’ in Georgia, just as they had in Ukraine in 2014. […]

A play to serve one man’s hubris was carefully orchestrated within the walls of the Kremlin. The re-crowned czar, devoid of greatness despite. The glittering halls of the Kremlin and the militaristic pomp of Red Square hide and silence the grief of countless families that have lost their loved ones in a futile war of the Kremlin’s making. Meanwhile, the Kremlin’s hollow rhetoric of dialogue and peace is engineered to deceive and confuse those uninitiated in Kremlin tactics. propagandists’ best efforts, continues his regime forged in death and destruction. As Putin embarks on his fifth term, enabled by fraudulent elections and manipulation of the constitution, the pro-Kremlin disinformation ecosystem is carefully constructing a narrative. In addition to power, the big lie the Kremlin manipulators are crafting is about invincibility, divine sanction, and historical destiny. […]