Russia. The word still evokes images of conspiracy behind gray concrete blocks, while a strong military marches through the streets in a tour de force of the iron hand that rules the harsh country. The Kremlin was working hard to ensure that this stereotype, of influential and ruthless Soviet toughness, is exaggerated. Disinformation, ostentatious secret service operations and bellicose rhetoric all served this illusion.
Russia attacked Ukraine. The first missiles and rounds fell in the south, including the capital – Kiev. The Russian army crossed the borders of Ukraine in a number of points, including across the border with Belarus.
Despite overwhelming and publicly available evidence, pro-Kremlin media have denied large troop movements and continue to spread disinformation about their purely defensive motives and Ukrainian provocations.
This report represents a bi-weekly summary of arising trends in the spread of malicious information content online. Based on that, Infosecurity.sk can warn the public about emerging and current trends in the field of disinformation, manipulation, and propaganda.
By Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom and STRATPOL – Strategic Policy Institute Project Infosecurity.sk organized by STRATPOL – Strategic Policy Institute and Slovak Security Policy Institute, supported by the Prague office of Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, continuously monitors the activities of both Slovak and foreign disinformation actors, but focuses mainly on the former. The project activities are built upon daily monitoring of emerging disinformation, hoaxes and conspiracy theories in the online information space. That…
The decision to remove an old statue of Soviet Marshall Koněv from a square in Prague has led to a chain of very unlikely international incidents, culminating in direct intimidation of political representatives of a member of both the EU and NATO.
There is a new hope for internet users: The troops of elves countering the internet trolls have proliferated in yet another country – the regional leader in countering malicious foreign influences: the Czech Republic.
During the EP election campaign, Political Capital and its three partners found out that both official Kremlin-backed portals (RT and Sputnik) and local pro-Kremlin media supported the campaigns of Eurosceptic parties by only describing their policy recommendations positively and exaggerating their chances in the EP elections1. Eurosceptic groups failed to achieve any kind of breakthrough on the election day, and will be unable to exert a strong influence on a European level. Still, pro-Kremlin portals do…
The Kremlin has used massive disinformation efforts, among others, to interfere in democratic processes across the West in the past few years. Consequently, the 2019 EP elections were always treated as potential targets for Russia, which was acknowledged by European institutions well in advance.
After the presidential election in March 2019, won by the pro-European candidate Zuzana Čaputová, the designated archenemy of pro-Russian and conspiratorial media, the European elections became the main issue in public and political discourses.
