Infodemic in Italy: A Parliamentary intelligence committee lays bare Russian and Chinese interference
By Francesco Bechis, for CEPA It’s official: China and Russia used the covid-19 pandemic to propagate and spread disinformation in Italy, exploiting the emergency for their own interests, according to Copasir, the Parliamentary committee overseeing the intelligence services. The bipartisan report, authored by Enrico Borghi of the Democratic Party (Pd), draws on classified material provided by Italian government agencies. In the past three months, Russia and China have transformed Italy into…
By Polygraph Andrey Krasovdeputy chair of the Russian State Duma’s Defense Committee“[This is] yet another American scary tale. This is fake and disinformation in the spirit of previous American administrations.” (Responding to U.S. military reports that Russia deployed fighter jets to Libya.)Source: Regnum.ru, May 26, 2020FALSE On May 26, the U.S. Army Africa Command (AFRICOM) said Russia had sent military aircraft to Libya to aid its state-sponsored private military contractors working on…
By Polygraph News Fronta pro-Kremlin news site“Every fourth American is against taking anti-COVID-19 vaccine.”Source: News Front, May 21, 2020FALSE On May 21, the pro-Kremlin news site News Front covered a survey commissioned by Reuters. The News Front story, published in Russian, was headlined “Every fourth American is against taking anti-COVID-19 vaccine.” The headline is false. News Front downplayed findings showing support for a coronavirus vaccine in the survey, which polled 4,428…
By EU vs Disinfo As the world cautiously begins to adjust to the new realities of post-quarantine life, the pro-Kremlin media is adjusting as well – and returning to familiar territory. That’s not to say that we’ve seen the last of coronavirus-related disinformation – far from it. COVID-19 will continue to affect life around the world for the foreseeable future, with a potential second wave anticipated in the coming months. Scientists are…
NEW REPORT Russian battles over historical narratives: the case of Prague’s Konev statue The recent escalation in relations between the Czech Republic and Russia, relating to the removal of a Marshal Konev statue, is just another case of Russia waging a “battle” with a post-Communist country over historical narratives. The Kremlin has, for a long time, sought to (re)interpret 20th-century history, in particular WWII. The removal of a Bronze Soldier…
By LTG (Ret.) Ben Hodges, Janusz Bugajski, COL (Ret.) Ray Wojcik, Carsten Schmiedl, for CEPA NATO’s Eastern Flank stretches from the Arctic to the Caucasus and includes the Baltic Sea and Black Sea littorals. It is the longest and perhaps the most vulnerable sector of the Alliance and is exposed daily to military probing, subversion, disinformation, cyberattacks, and overt diplomatic and economic pressure by the Kremlin. After Russia’s invasion of…
By NATO StratCom COE Download publication file (8.83 MB) New quarterly Robotrolling report has been published, delving into the role of pro-Kremlin bots in spreading disinformation about COVID-19 throughout March. In our analysis, we identify striking differences between how bots engaged with COVID-19 in the Russian- and English-language information spaces. Bot activity this quarter fixated on the global COVID-19 pandemic, with conversations about the virus captured by our dataset peaking in March. Pro-Kremlin social…
By NATO StratCom COE We have published three new reports with a focus on Russia’s footprint in the Western Balkan information environment. The scope of analysis is Russia’s activities in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. “Risks and Vulnerabilities in the Western Balkans” (Rufin Zamfir, Global Focus Center) identifies the risks and vulnerabilities hostile actors can exploit to gain influence over countries in the Western Balkan region. Based…
By Edward Lucas, for CEPA Vladimir Putin is often criticized for his nostalgia for the USSR (he memorably called its collapse a “geopolitical catastrophe”). But many thousands of Russians in the “Soviet Citizens” movement take that view a step further. A majority of those taking part in the March 1991 referendum on the Soviet Union’s future, they argue, voted in favor of its continuation. It therefore follows that the Soviet…
By Polygraph Vladimir ZharikhinDeputy Head of the Institute of CIS Countries“This (claim about persecution of Crimean Tatars) once again confirms that in Ukraine the name of the presidenthas changed, but the regime that came power in Ukraine after the coup has not changed. The actions are the same, the policy is the same, which is based on outright falsification, outright distortion of facts, outright labeling without any attempt to confirm…
