Media is barred from hearing as 71-year-old man appears in closed session over attempted assassination of prime minister.

While the attack on PM Fico has sparked fears in other European capitals that similar incidents could occur there, some in Slovakia say they were anxious the attack would embolden the authorities to launch assaults on the media, civil society and the opposition parties.

Other European leaders close to Fico like Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán have appeared to be eager to capitalise on his shooting, raising conspiracy theories. Fico is widely considered a divisive and populist official who has been criticised by the opposition for lashing out at independent media outlets and scrapping a special prosecutor’s office. --

The suspect in the shooting of Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico appeared in a closed court hearing on Saturday outside Bratislava amid growing fears about the future of the deeply divided nation.

The media was barred from the hearing, and reporters were kept behind a gate by armed police officers wearing balaclavas.

Fico, shot several times at point-blank range during a rally in the mining town of Handlová, had more surgery on Friday as the country reeled from the most serious attack on a European leader in decades.

The government has released only sparse details about the assailant or the health of the prime minister , who remains in a stable but serious condition.

Slovak media identified the attacker as Juraj Cintula, 71, who the authorities described as a “lone wolf” who had recently been radicalised.

A poet and former security guard, Cintula was known in his home town of Levice in provincial Slovakia as an eccentric but likable man.

His political views appear to have developed erratically. He is seen railing against violence in one YouTube clip, but later praising a violent pro-Russian paramilitary group on Facebook for their “ability to act without approval from the state”. He later adopted staunchly pro-Ukrainian views, which grew increasingly strong after Russia’s invasion.

In his published writing and personal conversations, Cintula expressed xenophobic views about the Romany community in Slovakia, a popular topic among the country’s far-right parties.

Neighbour and friend Mile L’udovit said the pair would occasionally discuss politics and that Cintula had been angry about the growing attacks on free speech under Fico’s leadership, a major topic of concern for the Slovakian leftwing opposition.

“No one knows why he did it, but I think it was a ticking timebomb before something like this would happen,” said Pavol Šimko, a 45-year-old history teacher, speaking in central Bratislava on Friday.

Wednesday’s assassination attempt in Handlová, 112 miles from the capital, has shone a light on what officials and many Slovaks say should be seen as a wider symptom of the country’s polarised political environment.

“We are now truly becoming the black hole of Europe,” added Šimko, referring to comments made by former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright, who coined the phrase to describe Slovakia in 1997 after the abduction of the son of then president Michal Kováč and the murder of a key witness in the case, police officer Róbert Remiáš.

Acts of political violence have become a grim fixture in recent Slovak history, but this latest is by far and away the most serious.

Other European leaders close to Fico, a divisive and populist official who has been criticised by the opposition for lashing out at independent media outlets and scrapping a special prosecutor’s office, have appeared to be eager to capitalise on his shooting.

Speaking on state radio on Friday morning, the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, drew a link between Fico’s views on the war in Ukraine and the attempted assassination.

Since Fico’s return to power, “Slovakia started on the path of peace, and this was a big help for Hungary,” Orbán said. “We have now lost this support. We know that the perpetrator was a pro-war person,” he added, without providing any evidence.

The Hungarian prime minister, who often employs conspiratorial narratives, has spent more than a decade nurturing a relationship with the Kremlin and has repeatedly argued the west should stop providing support to Ukraine.

*"Of course [Fico] he became the target. There are only a few like him in Europe. And they need to take care of their own safety." *- Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president

In his radio interview, he suggested – again without evidence – that the shooting in Slovakia was part of a geopolitical struggle. “The combinations that connect the assassination attempt with the war are not unjustified,” he said.

“The pro-war parties are negotiating with each other, which is why the head of the [George] Soros empire and the US secretary of state also went to Kyiv,” Orbán said.

In Moscow, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev praised the Kremlin-friendly Fico, also implying that he was targeted for his views on the Ukraine war. “Of course, he became the target. There are only a few like him in Europe. And they need to take care of their own safety,” he said.

Ľudovít Ódor, opposition party Progressive Slovakia’s lead candidate for the European parliamentary elections, said that foreign politicians “should not misinform foreigners and should not make political capital out of this for themselves”.

In an interview with independent Hungarian news outlet Partizán, Ódor, who briefly served as Slovakia’s caretaker prime minister last year and comes from Slovakia’s Hungarian-speaking minority, warned that “we have seen how this just comes back like a boomerang to us”, noting that many people in southern Slovakia watched Hungarian media.

The attack has also raised questions about a possible failure by the Slovak security services and sparked fears in other European capitals that similar incidents could occur there.

Slovak authorities have opened an investigation into the response of security forces at the scene. A source said that the security services were caught off guard and that Cintula was not known to them.

“Other European security services will be looking at their measures, realising that the danger can come out of nowhere,” the source said.

Polish PM Donald Tusk said on Thursday he received threats after the assassination attempt on his Slovakian counterpart, with a media outlet reporting his security protection would be strengthened.

In Belgium, prime minister Alexander De Croo filed a police complaint against a radio presenter who urged listeners to “take him out”.

“You see that it is possible to shoot down a prime minister. So I would say: Go ahead,” the radio presenter told his listeners on a station that airs from the Belgian province of West Flanders.

Some in Slovakia said they were anxious the attack would embolden the authorities to launch assaults on the media, civil society and the opposition parties.

“I worry that the ruling coalition will now use the shooting as a pretext for a big crackdown. They already started blaming the opposition and the media for it,” said Lenka Szabóová, a student in Bratislava. “This should be a time of coming together. But it seems like it will only tear us apart.”

‘Adversaries know migration is our vulnerability,’ says Kaja Kallas, spelling out negative consequences to Europe of Ukrainian defeat

Vladimir Putin is seeking to weaponise the threat of mass migration to divide and weaken Europe as supporters of Ukraine struggle to maintain unity to defeat Russia, Kaja Kallas, the Estonian prime minister, says.

“What our adversaries know is migration is our vulnerability,” she said. “The aim is to make life really impossible in Ukraine so that there would be migration pressure to Europe, and this is what they are doing.”

Speaking in Tallinn on Friday, she said Russia had already created the migration pressure through disruption in Syria and in Africa via the Wagner group.

“I think we have to understand that Russia is weaponising migration. Our adversaries are weaponising migration.

“They push the migrants over the border, and they create problems for the Europeans because they weaponise this since with human rights, you have to accept those people. And that is, of course, water to the mill of the far right.”

Kallas admitted the plight of the Ukrainians on the front was “very serious” and European promises of extra weapons had not been delivered, something that could be rectified if Nato took charge of coordinating weapons delivery. “The problem is that our promises do not save lives,” she said.

Kallas is one of many European politicians trying to spell out the many negative consequences to Europe of a Ukrainian defeat, and rebut those who claim such a reverse could be contained.

She was speaking the day after the former Estonian president Toomas Ilves predicted that if Ukraine fell to Russia as many as 30 million Ukrainians would seek to flee. “That is the threat we face due to our inaction,” he said, adding that Europe had a “complete meltdown” when faced with 2 million refugees from the Middle East in 2015.

A pamphlet produced by pro-Ukrainian NGOs has detailed how Russian shelling between October 2022 and January 2023 had increased migration out of Ukraine by a quarter compared with the previous year.

The recent round of attacks has targeted electricity generation rather than transmission. Olena Halushka, board head at the international centre for a Ukrainian Victory, said: “Right now they are trying to bomb Ukraine into the stone age,” adding that in the past two months more damage had been inflicted than the whole of the winter of 2023.

She said: “Europe needs to think about Kharkiv, a city the size of Munich without energy this winter and then think about the financial implications of tens of millions of Ukrainians fleeing the war due to fear of occupation”.

Kallas said Russian assaults were now targeting Ukrainian cities every day and night.

She conceded that, based on geography and history, some countries in Europe did not see the threat of a Ukrainian defeat in the same way. “They don’t see and they don’t believe that if Ukraine falls Europe is in danger, the whole of Europe, maybe some countries, but not the whole of Europe”.

She said she feared a mistake was being made similar to the late 1930s, when linked conflicts were seen as isolated events. Kallas, tipped as a possible successor to Josep Borrell as EU high commissioner for foreign policy, cited links between the conflicts in Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Middle East, and the South China Sea. She said the same error was made in the 1930s about the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the German occupation of Austria and the Sino-Japanese war.

“The lesson from 1938 and 1939 is that if aggression pays off somewhere, it will be taken up elsewhere. Ukraine’s defeat is something all aggressors will learn from. They will learn that in 2024, bluntly, you can just colonise another country and nothing happens to you.”

She pointed to what she described as baby steps to strengthening the European defence architecture, including a European defence fund, the increase in individual nation state defence spending, and the proposal for a shared defence debt bond to boost spending. She denied Estonia had had any serious discussions about sending troops to Ukraine, while arguing at the same time it was better to keep Putin guessing about Europe’s plans.

She said it was also a valid criticism that Ukraine was not moving fast enough to mobilise more troops.

Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign ministry warned the west it was playing with fire by allowing Ukraine to use western missiles and weapons to strike Russia, and said it would not leave such actions unanswered.

The foreign ministry said in a statement that it saw the hand of the US and Britain behind a recent spate of attacks, and blamed Washington and London for escalating the conflict by authorising Ukraine to use long-range rockets and heavy weapons they had supplied against Russian targets.

“Once again, we should like to unequivocally warn Washington, London, Brussels and other western capitals, as well as Kyiv, which is under their control, that they are playing with fire. Russia will not leave such encroachments on its territory unanswered,” the ministry said.

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The national security advisor to the Estonian president is the latest NATO nation official to weigh into the debate over the wisdom of foreign forces in Ukraine, while a senior British officer said it's still "not a path that the [UK] Prime Minister wants to go down".

The government of Estonia is “seriously” discussing the possibility of sending troops into western Ukraine to take over non-direct combat, “rear” roles from Ukrainian forces in order to free them up to fight on the front, though no decision is imminent, Tallinn’s national security advisor to the president told Breaking Defense.

Madis Roll said the executive branch is currently undertaking an analysis of the potential move, and though he said Estonia would prefer to make any such move as part of a full NATO mission — “to show broader combined strength and determination” — he didn’t rule out Estonia acting in a smaller coalition.

“Discussions are ongoing,” he said on May 10 at the presidential palace here. “We should be looking at all the possibilities. We shouldn’t have our minds restricted as to what we can do.” He also emphasized that it’s “not unthinkable” that NATO nations opposed to such a move would change their minds “as time goes on.”

Following publication of this report, Madis clarified that such a decision is not pending before the Estonian prime minister or her cabinet specifically, and he meant only that the discussion “is not dead” and is “ongoing in Estonia in general.” “We have not excluded any option in the future,” he said.

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur on May 14 told the European news outlet ERR such talks haven’t “gone anywhere” in Tallin.

“There is nothing new here. When France came up with the idea of considering whether Europe and the allies could do more, it has been floated in various discussions, but it has not gone anywhere, because at the moment there is no clear understanding among the allies of what it adds,” Pevkur said. “There is certainly no initiative by Estonia and certainly Estonia alone is not going to do anything.”

Roll’s boss, Estonian President Alar Karis, holds a position with many ceremonial duties relative to the nation’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, but he is ultimately Estonia’s commander-in-chief and is a key figure in foreign policy.

Roll’s comments came after the head of Estonia’s defense forces, Gen. Martin Herem, told Breaking Defense earlier last week there had been discussions in the military months ago about sending troops to western Ukraine to take on jobs like medical services, logistics or air defense for some western cities, but the air had gone out of those talks after the idea became a public lightning rod.

Herem and Pevkur were referring to the outcry that followed French President Emmanuel Macron’s declaration that Western nations must be open to discussing sending their troops in to aid Ukraine. (Kallas, the Estonian PM, in March appeared to defend Macron’s statement, noting that he wasn’t talking specifically about sending ground troops into combat. “In the exact same way, I can assure you that our soldiers will not go there to fight,” she said.)

Also earlier last week a key Estonian lawmaker, Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Marko Mihkelson, told Breaking Defense that European nations “have to start thinking about a coalition of the willing” to more directly help Kyiv, potentially with direct combat forces. (The Estonian officials spoke last week to an audience from the Kaplan Public Service Foundation; Breaking Defense accepted accommodation in Estonia from KPSF.)

The willingness of different nations to send some forces into Ukraine is a potential dividing line inside NATO. Although each member of the alliance is free to send forces where it feels it must for its national interests, some nations have been clear they see more risk than reward in doing so.

Notably, Germany and the US have flatly rejected the idea of sending in troops. The US Ambassador to Estonia, George Kent, pointed Breaking Defense to the Biden administration’s policy of aiding Ukraine through significant aid packages, but a firm commitment not to send in American soldiers.

Asked May 9 in Washington how Russia could react to NATO-nation forces being in Ukraine, British Chief of Defense Adm. Sir Tony Radakin was evasive, saying, “I won’t go into too much commentary on your question, if you don’t mind … The UK position is very clear in terms of, that’s not a path that the Prime Minister wants to go down.

However, he emphasized that the UK position is not “being governed by how Russia will react.” Instead, he said, it is based around what the UK views as the best approach overall: “I think that what you’ve seen all the way through, is a UK that has done the right thing, based on its judgment of what’s needed to be done.”

In contrast, there is Macron’s statement, as well as Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Simonytė who recently told the Financial Times she was open to sending Lithuanian troops into Ukraine to train Kyiv’s forces there. The FT wrote that Simonytė predicted Russia could see the move as an escalation, but added, “If we just thought about the Russian response, then we could not send anything. Every second week you hear that somebody will be nuked.”

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Following a series of high-profile failures and mass expulsions of uniformed “diplomats,” Russian intelligence has turned to more subtle methods, including leveraging scientific organizations with international ties. One such espionage “front” is the National Research Institute for the Development of Communications (NIIRK), which is led by ex-SVR and FSB officers. In Europe and neighboring countries, the institute organizes numerous conferences and internships. Here, intelligence officers and pro-Kremlin propagandists, under the pretense of promoting good neighborly relations, spread the notion that the West is an enemy, and that prosperity lies in friendship with Russia. The main targets are promising students and young scientists, who are ultimately groomed for espionage activities.

On June 19, 2023, Moscow’s usually quiet Korobeinikov Lane was unexpectedly closed off. Athletic-looking men with radios were bustling around its perimeter. Soon, an honor guard and official cars with flashing lights appeared. People carrying carnations gathered in front of the building that houses the National Research Institute for the Development of Communications (NIIRK). The last to arrive for the festivities was SVR head Sergey Naryshkin, who presided over the installation of a memorial plaque for former SVR director Vyacheslav Trubnikov. Speeches followed: “Vyacheslav Ivanovich worked here for two years,” “an outstanding intelligence officer and diplomat,” “a legend of intelligence,” “a knight of the Cold War,” and so on.

Before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the house was home to actors Alexander Lensky and Alexander Yuzhin-Sumbatov of the Maly Theatre. Later, it was occupied by the NKVD, MGB, and KGB; the mansion hosted clandestine meetings with agents. After 1993, several businesses were based there, but over time, the place fell into disrepair, and homeless people took over the vacant premises. In April 2020, the restored mansion became the new home of NIIRK. Cars belonging to the embassies of Central Asian and Transcaucasian republics began appearing outside.

What kind of institute is this? According to its website, NIIRK’s primary mission is “the development of multilateral dialogue among peoples, cultures, religions, states, international scientific and educational organizations, and civil society to strengthen peace and harmony.” The institute’s expert research and analysis are utilized by the Presidential Administration's Office for Interregional and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, foreign aid and cultural exchange agency Rossotrudnichestvo, the FSB's 5th Service, and the SVR.

The institute’s first official director was Irina Zavesnitskaya, co-founder of the PoiskSidelki LLC. A year later, she was succeeded by her husband, former FSB general and overseer of the Transcaucasian region, Vladislav Gasumyanov.

Friends of the Kremlin

As per The Insider's findings, over the past eighteen months, NIIRK has organized a total of twelve off-site conferences, forums, and roundtable discussions across various countries including Armenia, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Transnistria, Tajikistan, and Slovakia. Moreover, NIIRK has welcomed several delegations from these nations to Moscow for internships, with plans to host approximately ten more this year.

The institute primarily targets young scientists — aged 20 to 40 employed in research or academia. As one Armenian student shared with The Insider, “Throughout the internship, we were constantly reminded that without Russia, we would be doomed to become slaves to the West. Once, they casually asked me if I had relatives in Europe. Upon hearing my negative response, they lost interest in me.”

Key speakers at these conferences include General Gasumyanov, former SVR Academy head Nikolay Gribin, and former Slovak Prime Minister Jan Černogurský, who chairs the “Friends of Crimea” association. Černogurský frequently appears on Russian propaganda TV shows, where he advocates a pro-Kremlin agenda for his country of citizenship while predicting the imminent collapse of the dollar and the subsequent disintegration in the United States.

The building on Korobeinikov Lane is a frequent host to presidents from the Russian-occupied Georgian “republics” of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, along with representatives from Moldova’s Russian-occupied Transnistria region. Last year, a delegation from Vietnam even paid a visit.

The institute’s leadership also makes the rounds, with Gasumyanov visiting Serbia to hold negotiations with leaders of the For Peace and Justice in Afghanistan movement (DMSA). Spearheaded by former Afghan intelligence chief Masum Stanikzai, DMSA was established by senior officials from the previous administration who fled from the Taliban regime. It appears that the Kremlin is playing a double game: on one hand, it welcomes the Taliban to Moscow, while on the other hand, it engages with their sworn enemies.

Among other partners, NIIRK is known to have connections with the Awami Party from Pakistan. Since its founding in 1986, the group has been aligned with Moscow and was the only political force in Pakistan to support the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which lasted from 1979-1989. A source from Russia’s Veterans of Foreign Intelligence Association, who requested anonymity, informed The Insider that General Trubnikov — the figure honored by the memorial plaque on the NIIRK building — was well acquainted with the leadership of Awami during his tenure at the KGB residency in Islamabad.

In February 2024, NIIRK organized a conference titled “United Kingdom - EU - Russia - Middle East: Challenges and Perspectives.” Notably, the discussions took place not in Moscow, but in Bratislava, Slovakia. Among the speakers were Slovak Parliament Vice-Speaker Luboš Blaha, who accused the United States and NATO of provoking the conflict in Ukraine.

Another notable participant was former Austrian counterintelligence general Gustav Gustenau, who in 2019 was dismissed due to serious suspicions of connections with Jan Marsalek, the fugitive COO of the payment company Wirecard. In 2020, Marsalek fled to Russia. The Insider recently published yet another article in a series of investigations concerning Marsalek’s ties to Russian intelligence.

Patrushev's man in Transcaucasia

NIIRK head Gasumyanov has long been referred to as “Patrushev's man” (a reference to longtime Security Council head Nikolai Patrushev, who was recently demoted to the role of “presidential aide”). Gasumyanov himself has had quite the career. In 1982, he worked as a Komsomol district committee instructor in Kyiv, and through the Komsomol recruitment, he was directed to the Higher Courses of the KGB of the USSR. The young intelligence officer was then dispatched to the KGB Office in Ivano-Frankivsk, in western Ukraine, where he was tasked with combating manifestations of nationalism. In 1988, he was transferred to Nagorno-Karabakh, where the first clashes between the local Armenian and Azerbaijani communities had already begun. He rose to the position of deputy head of the KGB Directorate in the region, but when combat operations there escalated, all Lubyanka officers were relieved of their duties and dispersed to various other directorates.

After a period of unknown activities, in 2000 Gasumyanov found himself in the FSB Office in the city of Sochi. Two years later, he moved to the position of State Secretary of the State Reserve, which at the time was led by Alexander Grigoryev — a friend of Putin’s from their youth and a colleague of the future president in the Leningrad KGB. In the 1980s, as part of his official duties as a lieutenant colonel, Grigoryev had worn the cassock of an Orthodox priest and, under the operational guise of “Father Alexander,” directly supervised the Estonian-born Alexey Rigidier, who from 1990-2008 became better known as Alexey II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’.

After the war with Georgia in 2008, the Kremlin decided to strengthen its influence in Transcaucasia. Trusted intelligence personnel were needed. and the “Patrushev man” was appointed Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration's Department for Interregional and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, a department staffed largely with former officers from the security services.

The core of the Presidential Administration's Department for Interregional and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries consists of ex-security officers

At Moscow’s “Old Square” — where the Presidential Administration has its office — the “culturologist” Gasumyanov held oversight responsibilities for Georgia, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia. Reports even surfaced in the media suggesting that he had directly intervened in the 2011 presidential elections in South Ossetia, advocating for Moscow's favored candidate, Anatoly Bibilov. Allegedly, Gasumyanov intimidated opponents of Bibilov by promising that they would receive a visit from Jambulat Tedeev, the coach of the Russian national freestyle wrestling team.

Transitioning from the presidential administration, Gasumyanov assumed the role of Chief Security Officer at Norilsk Nickel. In this capacity, the FSB officer made visits to Europe and Africa and proposed the development of a Charter on Information Security for critical industrial facilities, a proposal met with skepticism by many foreign companies.

Concurrently, Gasumyanov chaired the Security Committee at the International Platinum Group Metals Association (IPGMA), affording him access to internal documents of major global companies within the industry. Notably, on the NIIRK website, Gasumyanov shared a photo gallery that included an image of himself alongside former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

After opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan became Prime Minister of Armenia, the Kremlin once again required the services of the former overseer of Transcaucasia, and NIIRK offered the perfect instrument for Gasumyanov to restore Russia’s influence in the region. “We have always treated our neighboring countries with care, love, and attempted to help them, from promoting independence to providing financial assistance and establishing institutions,” the “Patrushev man” said in February 2023, as Russian rockets and bombs were destroying peaceful cities in Ukraine.

After opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan became Prime Minister of Armenia, the Kremlin once again required the services of the former overseer of Transcaucasia

Spies as supervisors

Alongside Gasumyanov, the Supervisory Board of NIIRK boasts other individuals with extensive intelligence backgrounds. One such figure is FSB General Anatoly Bolyukh, well-known to the Security Service of Ukraine and European counterintelligence agencies. After graduating from the Peoples’ Friendship University in Moscow in 1982, Bolyukh joined the KGB's Foreign Intelligence Service, operating undercover as a diplomat in Soviet embassies. Later, he was seconded to the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), where he served as an assistant to the rector for security matters and played a role in recruiting promising students. After MGIMO, Bolyukh was assigned to the International Academy of Fuel and Energy before finding himself back in Europe — this time with a press pass from the Izvestia newspaper.

In 2009, Bolyukh took charge of the Department of Operational Information (DOI) within the 5th Service of the FSB (Unit 26047), which is responsible for espionage internationally. The DOI's structure includes departments covering Europe, Moldova, Transcaucasia, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Ukraine, where intelligence reports from residencies are consolidated. Additionally, the DOI has achieved success in recruiting European politicians, as was recently reported by The Insider.

The Department of Operational Information has achieved success in recruiting European politicians

During the 2014 Maidan protests in Ukraine, Bolyukh flew to Kyiv with a group of FSB, GRU, and SVR generals in order to aid Viktor Yanukovych. However, by the time they arrived, the situation had already turned in favor of the protesters, and on February 22 of that year, Yanukovych fled the capital, ultimately ending up in Russia. In response to Putin's dissatisfaction with the outcome, Bolyukh was removed from his position and transferred to Rosgeology, an organization historically utilized by the KGB for espionage purposes.

In 2019, there was a change in leadership at Rosgeology, with Sergei Gorkov, a graduate of the FSB Academy, assuming control of the state corporation. Gorkov brought in his own team, prompting Bolyukh’s departure. At NIIRK, the former student recruiter now oversees educational processes and enjoys discussing the concept of good neighborliness: “Tactics are essential here. It is also important to consider the level at which good neighborliness is based — the state, the people, or the elite. So, creativity and unconventional solutions are essential in this matter. Cliches and copying won't suffice.”

The Insider has obtained a list of phone contacts of the current head of the DOI, Lieutenant General Georgy Grishaev. In addition to Grishaev's current colleagues, Bolyukh's phone number is also included in the list. While it could not be determined precisely which topics the generals discuss amongst themselves, it is unlikely that “neighborly relations” is among them.

Boris Miroshnikov, an Honorary Security Service Worker, joined the Supervisory Board alongside Bolyukh. Miroshnikov commenced his service in the Counterintelligence Operations Department (UKRO) of the FSK-FSB, focusing on developing and implementing novel methods for operational and investigative activities. Miroshnikov personally established the Computer and Information Security Directorate within the FSB, now known as the 11th Center (Unit 68240). In 2002, he was assigned to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), where he assumed leadership of the Bureau of Special Technical Measures (BSTM).

The Bureau, overseen by the FSB, is responsible for tasks such as phone tapping, email hacking, and monitoring electronic payments of criminal suspects. Evgeny Chichvarkin, the founder of mobile phone retailer Euroset, accused Miroshnikov of instigating the round of persecution that led the independent entrepreneur to flee Russia in 2009. In a 2011 video address to Russia’s then-president Dmitry Medvedev, Chichvarkin labeled the BSTM leadership as a “gang of crime bosses” — with Miroshnikov chief among them.

The Bureau, overseen by the FSB, is responsible for tasks such as phone tapping, email hacking, and monitoring electronic payments of criminal suspects

Also in 2011, the “crime boss general” became the vice president of a company called Citadel. Citadel's primary focus lies in developing software for information security and manufacturing SORM (telephone tapping) equipment for law enforcement agencies. Moreover, telecommunications operators in Russia are obligated to install SORM on their networks.

One can only speculate as to what role the wiretapping specialist has in the Korobeinikov Lane headquarters. Whatever activities it is that his official duties require, Miroshnikov’s hobbies appear to include waxing philosophically on the importance of culture: “It's a very delicate matter! It's necessary to cultivate culture in the highest sense of the word, where my life-cultural space wouldn't suppress the same space of my neighbor. It's an extremely challenging task! Any misstep is nationalism transitioning into Nazism-fascism.”

Among the other members of the Supervisory Board, notable figures include former head of the SVR Academy, Nikolay Gribin, and former deputy director of the FSB, Valentin Sobolev. Gribin, who served in the political intelligence department of the KGB's First Main Directorate in the 1980s, worked undercover as a diplomat in Denmark and Norway before transitioning to the KGB-SVR central apparatus. Judging from his speeches, Gribin is concerned about Article 13 of the Russian Constitution, which explicitly states that “ideological diversity is recognized in the Russian Federation,” and “no ideology can be established as state or mandatory.”

Another “supervisor,” General Sobolev, began his career in the Tomsk Directorate of the KGB and rose to the position of the secretary of the Directorate's Communist Party committee. After relocating to Moscow, his career took off. Sobolev has served as the first deputy director of the FSB, and later moved to the Security Council.

Following his retirement in 2012 as a Lieutenant General in the FSB, Sobolev has been a frequent speaker at events targeting young audiences. He has also spent leisure time in the affluent Gorki-2 community in the Odintsovo District, where he owns a mansion valued at around 120 million rubles ($1.32 million).

Propagandists and publishers

NIIRK owns the conference organizing company Project LLC, along with the Eurasia Daily news agency, which employs well-known pro-Kremlin political analysts and conspiracy theorists. The institute publishes three journals: “Man and the World: Dialogue,” “Perspective: Generation of Search,” and “Russia and the World: Scientific Dialogue,” all of which are distributed free of charge in CIS countries. Regular trips abroad, conferences, presentations, and publishing activities incur considerable costs. In 2022, the total assets of NIIRK amounted to 467 million rubles ($5.2 million), even if that figure fell to 273 million in 2023. Of course, “Patrushev's man” can always ask his business partners for financial assistance, and they are unlikely to refuse him. For example, the head of the Pangeo Capital fund, Yuri Kudimov, who manages investments worth $1 billion, is a known associate.

In fact, Kudimov and Gasumyanov are co-founders of Moskovskoe More Management Company LLC (ООО «УК Московское море»), which built an elite cottage settlement in Zavidovo just under 100 miles northwest of the capital. Kudimov also boasts an extensive espionage background: following his graduation from the journalism faculty of Moscow State University, he joined the KGB's First Main Directorate and completed an internship under the direction of Kim Philby, a former MI-6 officer who defected to the USSR in 1963.

Under the guise of a correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda, Kudimov conducted espionage activities in London until his expulsion from the country in 1985. Later, holding a Novoye Vremya press card, he operated from a KGB station in Mexico. Upon returning to his homeland, he transitioned into banking as a reserve SVR officer, bringing in a decent income by servicing Soviet debts.

In addition to his activities at Pangeo Capital, Kudimov became one of the founders of the Kim Philby Memorial Fund. European media outlets alleged that Pangeo Capital was involved in providing clandestine financing for “friends of the Kremlin,” but Kudimov successfully contested these claims in court. Nonetheless, last March, Lithuanian authorities revoked his citizenship after the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs determined that the activities of the “former KGB employee” were “incompatible with the national interests of Lithuania.”

Nuclear power leaves a long and toxic legacy.

Mr Ruskell said: “There is nothing safe, secure or green about nuclear energy, and many people across Scotland will be dismayed and angry to hear that the Secretary of State is seeking to open a new reactor in Scotland.

“Aside from the brazen entitlement and the message this sends, it ignores that people in Scotland have long rejected nuclear energy. I hope that all progressive parties will unite in condemning this environment wrecking overreach.

“A new reactor would not only be unsafe, it would be extremely costly and would leave a toxic legacy for centuries. It would also distract from the vital work we need to do to boost clean, green and renewable energy.

“That is why I hope all progressive parties can rule out any return to nuclear power once Torness has been decommissioned.

“The Hinkley point shambles has exposed the UK government’s total inability to deliver nuclear programmes on budget or on time. We would be far better investing in the huge abundance of renewable resources that we already have here in Scotland.”

Parliament in ex-Soviet Moldova voted on Thursday to hold a referendum in October on European Union membership, the cornerstone of President Maia Sandu's policies, alongside a presidential election.

Sandu singles out Russia and corruption as the biggest threats to the sovereignty of the country lying between Ukraine and Romania. Moscow's war in Ukraine has buffeted Moldova, with missile and drone remnants repeatedly landing on its territory.

The proposed Oct. 20 date for the referendum was backed by a total of 56 members in the 101-seat assembly, where Sandu's Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) holds a majority. Members then quickly approved the same date for the presidential poll, in which Sandu is seeking re-election.

Twenty-four assembly members from pro-Russian opposition parties took no part in the vote. One member tried for a time to block parliament's rostrum. Opposition parties oppose Sandu's rapid drive for European integration and say the president has called the referendum to improve her chances of winning the presidential poll.

They call for improved ties with Russia and say a plebiscite should wait until after membership talks begin - the EU agreed last year to launch talks with both Moldova and Ukraine.

Lilian Carp, a leading member of the PAS party, mocked opposition deputies, saying they would have voiced no objections if the referendum had proposed integration with the defunct Soviet Union.

Citizens of Moldova will have their say in the referendum," Carp told the chamber. "Integration with the EU means peace and stability." Moldova's Constitutional Court had earlier given its approval for the two ballots to be staged simultaneously.

Moldovans will be asked if they are for or against European integration with a view to joining the 27-member EU.

If the vote passes and turnout exceeds 33 percent, an addendum to the constitutional will declare EU integration "the strategic goal of the Republic of Moldova" and a separate section on the process will be added.

The opposition is made up of Socialists, Communists and the Chance party, linked to fugitive businessman Ilan Shor, sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison in connection with the 2014 disappearance of $1 billion from Moldovan banks.

Shor now lives in Moscow after spending time in Israel and said on Thursday he had been granted Russian citizenship. Chance and a group of smaller parties last month announced - in Moscow - the creation of the "Victory" electoral bloc to contest the October ballot.

Alternative link

After our research on which websites are spreading pro-Russian narratives and talking points that benefit Moscow, we decided to take a closer look at websites in German. During the analysis, we found publications that quote Russian state media, that receive back quotes from them, and that spread claims that could play into the hands of the Kremlin.

During the content analysis, we found that there are several key areas among pro-Russian narratives in Europe in general and in Germany in particular. Let’s highlight a few of them and provide examples below.

• ‘The West and NATO are to blame for the war in Ukraine.’
• ‘Ukraine is a proxy state for the West.’
• ‘Ukraine and the West are losing; Russia is winning.’
• ‘Russia is fighting NATO forces in Ukraine.’
• ‘The French and other NATO troops are already present in Ukraine.’
• ‘Nuclear threats from Russia.’
• ‘The inexpediency of Western support for Ukraine.’
• ‘The West is declining and losing influence in the world.’
• ‘Favorable coverage for right-wing radical parties in light of the elections.’
• ‘Fake news about the Ukrainian government sending children to the frontlines, as well as pregnant women being sent to the trenches.’

'Shifting the blame for the war to the West’

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russian propaganda machine has been blaming Ukraine, Western countries, NATO, and the EU for the war. Moscow claims that it felt threatened by Ukraine, that it came to protect the people of Donbas, and that NATO’s eastward expansion is to blame. This way, Russia is trying to justify its invasion and shift the blame for the war to the West.

“The attacks on eastern Ukraine, which began in 2014, i.e. after the Maidan coup, were carried out from Kiev. Russia has repeatedly (since 2014) pushed for a peaceful solution for eastern Ukraine. Putin demanded, bead and argued. But he was ignored until February 2022.” (https://apolut.net/die-auswanderhilfe-moya-rossiya-von-tom-j-wellbrock/)

“In 2014, the regime in Kiev started a war against Donbass… The West is arming Ukraine and pushing the Ukrainian dictator to launch a new campaign against the Donbass. The Russian army intervenes in 2022.”(https://weltnetz.tv/story/2982-russische-praesidentschaftswahl-2024-fehlkalkulation-des-westens)

“It turns the war into a big hybrid conflict between East and West, which spreads hatred, destruction and misery.”(https://zeitpunkt.ch/der-bisher-beste-text-zum-verstaendnis-des-ukraine-konflikts)

The now outbreak Ukraine war is above all a long-prepared proxy war between the USA and Russia for geopolitical interests, with the Ukrainians on the battlefield. Because the USA and the West have been pursuing the declared goal of including Ukraine in NATO since the NATO Summit in 2008 at the latest. (https://www.telepolis.de/features/Ukraine-Krieg-Warum-wir-den-Aufstand-fuer-den-Frieden-brauchen-7533383.html)

'Ukraine and its allies have lost’

According to all of the propaganda bases, the Kremlin media are convinced that Russian troops have suffered almost no losses, while the Ukrainian army is suffering high casualties. The Kremlin media presents any Russian advance, even the capture of a village at the cost of several hundred soldiers, as a great achievement. Instead, the Russians downplay their own losses. The goal is to instill fear and force concessions to Putin’s demands.

“With each day of the Ukraine war, the chance of an independent future of the country becomes smaller.”(https://apolut.net/deutschland-und-die-ukraine/)

“Ukraine is also only helped in the short term. Because the money and the weapons are not enough in the back and front.”(https://lostineu.eu/ukraine-israel-taiwan-die-usa-giessen-oel-ins-feuer/)

“The bet on the effectiveness of NATO weapons, as time has shown, did not work, the praised leopards and Bradleys and other Western equipment burn, and very well.”(https://www.extremnews.com/nachrichten/weltgeschehen/e24c1930524c298)

“Ukraine has already lost militarily.” (https://www.freiewelt.net/nachricht/ex-general-kujat-frage-der-zeit-bis-die-ukraine-militaerisch-vollends-unterliegt-10096537/)

“Either the escalation of the Ukraine war to a great European war with world war potential or a great loss of face and power of the West, especially the superpower USA based on the dollar dominance.”(https://www.pi-news.net/2024/05/grosser-krieg-oder-grosser-machtverlust/)

“The benefit of the Leopard tanks, which were handed over to Kiev from the West, is currently “zero” while Russian equipment for electronic warfare successfully fights Western drones, according to experts.” (https://www.anti-spiegel.ru/2024/nutzlose-leoparden-und-keine-zusaetzlichen-patriots-die-ereignisse-des-22-april/)

“Terrible losses:Bodies of Ukrainian soldiers are disposed of on the battlefield, morgues are not allowed to provide information.” (https://uncutnews.ch/schreckliche-verluste-leichen-ukrainischer-soldaten-werden-auf-dem-schlachtfeld-entsorgt-leichenhallen-duerfen-keine-auskunft-geben/)

“In Ukraine, the sale of the two-legged human material is currently underway. There, the decision-makers may have put many billions in their pockets and until the last Ukrainian is burned, this profitable business model is also to be maintained.” (https://qpress.de/2024/04/29/ukraine-demokratie-frieden-menschenrechte-weg/)

“In addition, there is the possibility that a Ukrainian army, which is exhausted and bled out by years of failed offensives, will eventually fall victim to a Russian counterattack, which would lead to far greater territorial losses than Ukraine has suffered so far. The French ex-president offers a diplomatic way out. The commentators react with “pro-Putin” insults. What’s behind the witch hunt.”(https://www.telepolis.de/features/Sarkozy-verunglimpft-weil-er-unbequeme-Wahrheit-ueber-die-Ukraine-ausspricht-9293539.html)

‘“Nazis” in Ukraine’

The Kremlin media used traditional ‘Nazi’ disinformation to discredit all Ukrainians and justify the war. In this way, Russian and pro-Russian propaganda also diverts attention from the fact that it was the Putin regime that started the aggressive and neocolonial war against a sovereign state, in violation of international law.

“While in Germany it claims to take action against people allegedly close to the Nazis, it supports a real Nazi regime in Kiev with billions.”(https://www.anti-spiegel.ru/2024/deutschland-laedt-vertreter-russlands-von-gedenkfeiern-zur-befreiung-von-konzentrationslagern-aus/?doing_wp_cron=1713875058.6111850738525390625000)

“One could actually be grateful to the Tagesschau for providing the public proof of the Nazi background of the Ukrainian regime.” (https://apolut.net/ukraine-soldaten-als-deutsche/)

“It also conveys why Putin is now resolutely fighting against Nazis in Ukraine and sets legitimate conditions for the government.” (https://de.sott.net/article/35437-Dokumentation-Ukraine-on-Fire-Hintergrunde-zur-Farbrevolution-in-der-Ukraine-2013)

“Zelensky is a Nazi in sweatpants”(https://www.freiewelt.net/nachricht/selenskij-ist-ein-nazi-in-jogginghose-10094886/)

“The Nazi regime in Kiev, supported by NATO and the EU, is the structure that threatens to trigger a new world war in Europe that would lead to a global wildfire.” (https://uncutnews.ch/europaeisches-parlament-verleumdet-russland-und-finanziert-nazi-terrorismus/)

"My narrative was not consistent with the narrative of NATO, and maybe that was a problem. The narrative of NATO tries to make us believe that there has never been a conflict between Ukrainian citizens around the Maidan in Ukraine, but that everything is only an invention of Russia. In my opinion and based on the events I have observed on the ground since 2014, it is just as true that Russia invaded and bombed in a criminal way as the fact that the Maidan was a nationalist coup, while on the other side of the trenches there were fighters and families from Ukraine who are set against Kiev. I know it’s extremely unpopular to say that today, but I’m a journalist and not a PR man.”(https://www.telepolis.de/features/Wie-die-Taz-einen-Artikel-eines-Ukraine-Kriegsreporters-manipulierte-9186628.html)

‘Russia is fighting NATO forces in Ukraine’

After Russian propaganda promised to capture Kyiv in two days and then two weeks, Moscow is looking for excuses for the failure of its so-called “special operation.” The simplest excuse is that almost the entire world is fighting against Russia. However, in reality, only the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which use modern Western weapons provided by the allies, are confronting the Russian invaders. Only foreign volunteers who joined the Ukrainian Army are on the ground, not any official forces. By faking the presence of French troops in Ukraine, the Kremlin creates a pretext for itself to resort to threats.

“Together with a representative of the arms producer Diehl (anti-aircraft system IRIS-T), Habeck had announced during his visit to Kiev that Ukraine had to win the NATO war against Russia.”(https://apolut.net/zwerge-erklaeren-russland-den-krieg/)

“But at the same time, it legitimizes the regime as a partner of Germany and supports those tendencies in the Federal Republic that would like to participate in a NATO war.”(https://apolut.net/ukraine-soldaten-als-deutsche/)

“The expansion of NATO activities near the Russian borders makes neutrality even more unclear and increases the immediate risk of direct confrontation.”(https://aktuelle-nachrichten.app/wir-befinden-uns-bereits-im-dritten-weltkrieg/)

"Not only French mercenaries are said to have already fallen on the front. President Macron is preparing an invasion of French ground troops into Ukraine. A tremendous escalation that can affect the entire continent.”(https://www.compact-online.de/macron-bereitet-invasion-in-der-ukraine-vor/)

“RT DE reports: We believe that NATO is openly involved in the violent confrontation in Ukraine with Russia” (https://www.extremnews.com/nachrichten/weltgeschehen/8747193012f2963)

“France sends foreign Legionnaires to Ukraine.” (https://www.freiewelt.net/nachricht/frankreich-schickt-fremdenlegionaere-in-die-ukraine-10096541/)

“France has sent the first combat troops to the Ukrainian front.” (https://anti-spiegel.ru/2024/frankreich-hat-erste-kampftruppen-an-die-ukrainische-front-geschickt/)

“Extraining Ukrainian students for the war and NATO soldiers in Ukraine.” (https://aktuelle-nachrichten.app/ukrainische-schueler-fuer-den-krieg-ausbilden-und-nato-soldaten-in-der-ukraine-die-ereignisse-des-wochenendes/)

“When I asked him to explain whether he wanted to indicate that Russia is fighting more humanely in Ukraine than the USA in Iraq, Chomsky replied: “I do not suggest it, it is obvious.”” (https://www.telepolis.de/features/Noam-Chomsky-Russlands-Krieg-in-Ukraine-humaner-als-US-Invasion-in-Irak-8983892.html)

'Nuclear threats and nuclear blackmail’

When the Russian Federation realizes that the democratic, civilized world supports Ukraine and its adherence to international law, the last argument is the threat of nuclear weapons. Russian officials speak out, and pro-Russian media instill fear in Europe.

“The Russian military will take countermeasures when the US nuclear weapons are transferred to Poland, explained the spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov.” (https://de.sott.net/article/36005-US-Atomwaffen-in-Polen-Moskau-stellt-Gegenmanahmen-in-Aussicht)

“In response to French war threats, Kremlin chief Putin has ordered the use of tactical nuclear weapons to be practiced.” (https://lostineu.eu/putin-ordnet-manoever-mit-atomwaffen-an-eiszeit-mit-deutschland/)

“Russia speaks, among other things, of the danger of a “direct military clash between nuclear powers” and cites the recent provocative statements of Western politicians as the reason for a maneuver by the Russian tactical nuclear forces.”(https://anti-spiegel.ru/2024/russland-warnt-vor-direkter-militaerischer-konfrontation-mit-der-nato/)

“Medvedev: This will be a global disaster – Biden and Macron need war before the European elections on the 9th.” (https://www.pravda-tv.com/2024/05/medwedew-das-wird-eine-globale-katastrophe-biden-und-macron-brauchen-krieg-vor-den-europawahlen-am-9-juni-videos/)

“Nuclear war is possible. World peace depends on the tact of the United States, which is being blackmailed by the Ukrainian “integral nationalists” and the Israeli “revisionist Zionists”.” (https://www.pravda-tv.com/2024/05/ist-die-moeglichkeit-eines-weltkrieges-real/)

'Supporting Ukraine makes no sense’

Pro-Russian media convinces us that we should stop supporting Ukraine and abandon sanctions against Russia as a goal of all narratives. This is the main goal of the Putin regime: to make Ukraine defenseless against the offensive of the Russian invading forces.

“Cheap energy from Russia would be needed to mitigate the economic crisis. This realization now needs “supervised excuses.””(https://overton-magazin.de/hintergrund/politik/vom-albtraum-der-faeser-demokratie/)

“If Germany continues to present itself as a spearhead against Russia, we are threatened with demise. The only thing that can save us is neutrality.”(https://www.compact-online.de/scholz-neues-milliarden-paket-fuer-ukraine/)

“Without a strategy to end the war, the new US aid package will only bring us back to our starting point in a few months.”(https://overton-magazin.de/hintergrund/politik/vorsicht-vor-russischem-gas/)

“Der Spiegel has published an article with the headline “Expensive energy, inflation, trade conflicts – Russia’s war of aggression costs Germany 160 billion euros”, which is once again pure propaganda, because Der Spiegel blames Russia for the policy of the federal government.” (https://aktuelle-nachrichten.app/die-anti-russische-politik-kosten-die-deutschen-jaehrlich-2-600-euro-pro-kopf/)

“However, Spiegel readers do not learn that 80 percent of “Ukraine aid” does not go to Ukraine at all, but directly to the US arms industry.” (https://aktuelle-nachrichten.app/die-us-ukraine-hilfe-bleibt-in-wirklichkeit-zu-80-prozent-in-den-usa/)

“Germany is costing its suicidal Russia policy a lot. Citizens are expected to explode electricity and gasoline because the traffic light government wants to get away from Russian energy supplies.”(https://zuerst.de/2022/06/17/kostspieliger-oel-umweg-ueber-indien-warum-billig-wenn-es-auch-teuer-geht/)

“Otto Schily warns of war mood and Ukraine hype: “We have to get along with the Russians”” (https://zuerst.de/2022/07/24/otto-schily-warnt-vor-kriegsstimmung-und-ukraine-hype-wir-muessen-mit-den-russen-klarkommen/)

“Ukraine war costs the German economy 200 billion euros.” (https://zuerst.de/2022/09/20/chef-des-instituts-der-deutschen-wirtschaft-ukraine-krieg-kostet-die-deutsche-wirtschaft-200-milliarden-euro/)

“The majority of Europeans want peace, even at the expense of Ukraine.” (https://zeitpunkt.ch/index.php/die-mehrheit-der-europaeer-will-frieden-selbst-auf-kosten-der-ukraine)

“How the USA cracked Europe with the Ukraine war and China’s rise. Europe suffers and joins in. Germany is the main loser of the US collision with Russia and China. Western Europe, especially Germany, is the big loser. Cheap Russian energy has been replaced by expensive ones from the USA. This has undermined the competitiveness of the German manufacturing industry and contributed to even higher European inflation. Europe has also lost Russia’s huge market, where it sold industrial goods. In addition, it has lost the wasteful expenses of the Russian elite. Threat from Russia a mirage. Above all, however, the assertion of a Russian threat to Europe is not valid. This weakness indeed speaks for the legitimacy of the Russian need for a demilitarized Ukraine as a protective buffer.” (https://www.telepolis.de/features/Wie-die-USA-mit-Ukraine-Krieg-und-Chinas-Aufstieg-Europa-knackten-9631903.html)

We have prepared a table with links between all the sites that spread pro-Russian narratives or claims that benefit Moscow. These include Russian state media, news websites supporting far-right political forces, and some other sites. Using web analytics tools, we mapped all the links from each site to all the citations between the sites on the list, which you can see filtered in the table below. [This table only visible on tbe website.]

It is clear that Russia is waging a war of propaganda and disinformation against Europe, whereas it is waging a real war against Ukraine, seizing its territories. An analysis of key Kremlin media narratives in different languages reveals that their campaign’s main goal is to force the West to stop supporting Ukraine and make concessions to Putin, probably by giving him the occupied territories and thus recognizing the redrawing of borders in Europe by military means.

News websites that tend to support pro-Russian, Euroskeptic, and anti-American views, as well as those close to the positions of right-wing radical parties, often pick up such narratives. Consciously or unconsciously, such web resources play into the hands of the Kremlin’s agenda. Such news reports are becoming a tool for spreading Russian and pro-Russian influence in Europe.

According to the European consumer protection group BEUC, the Chinese online retailer Temu "fails to provide sufficient traceability of the traders that sell on its platform" and thereby fail "to ensure that the products sold to EU consumers conform to EU law", BEUC said in a release.

"Temu is using manipulative practices such as dark patterns to get consumers, for example, to spend more than they might originally want to, or to complicate the process of closing down their account", BEUC adds, and it fails to "provide transparency about how it recommends products to consumers".

As a result, BEUC filed a complaint with the European Commission, while several of BEUC’s national members filed the same complaint with their competent national authorities, namely Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and Luxembourg.

[Edit typo.]

Archived link

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia’s attritional fighting has bombarded Ukrainian schools, hospitals and other vital civilian infrastructure in an attempt to make life unsustainable for remaining civilians.

But Russia has waged an aggressive campaign online as well as off, seeking to exploit and exacerbate divisions and tensions created by the war in Ukraine. While the strategies used are not new, the full-scale invasion saw an intensification of efforts to spread fear, muddy the waters, sow division, and ultimately, undermine support for Ukraine.

More than two years on, as more than two billion people across 50 countries head to polling stations in 2024, democracies around the globe are increasingly vulnerable to Russian influence attempts to polarise public opinion, discredit governments, and cast doubt on democracy itself.

**The information laundering process **

While we’ve heard plenty about the Kremlin’s narratives and disinformation campaigns – and the bot networks and troll farms behind them – we’ve heard less about the specific strategies that are making dis– and misinformation increasingly difficult to detect.

Key to this process is information laundering. Akin to money laundering, information laundering is when propaganda is spread through layers of media to conceal and distance it from its Kremlin origins. Actors use a range of techniques to build credibility and embed laundered information within public discourse, allowing falsehoods at the fringes of the media environment to go global and shape mainstream narratives.

One of the aims is to subtly manipulate information in a way that makes inaccuracies difficult to detect or debunk. In simple terms, clean and dirty information – or fact and fiction – are washed together until the two become indistinguishable, explains Belén Carrasco Rodríguez, director of CIR’s Eyes on Russia project.

“Information laundering is a multi-layered influence process involving the combination and progressive application of a set of influence techniques that seek to distort an event, a claim, or a fact,” explains Rodríguez.

“Instead of just disinformation, this involves a more complex process where facts are mixed up, decontextualised, misappropriated or misconstrued. Once a fact is recycled through a network of accounts or layers of media, it becomes completely distorted, and the original source is obscured."

Laundering information involves the gradual application of techniques such as disinformation, misappropriation, click-bait headlines, and the ‘Woozle effect’ – when fabricated or misleading citations are used repeatedly in laundered news items in an attempt to provide ‘evidence’ of their integrity.

The information is then integrated into and spread around the information ecosystem through processes such as smurfing – a term borrowed from money laundering – where an actor sets up multiple accounts or websites to disseminate the information. There’s also what disinformation analysts call ‘Potemkin villages’, a network of accounts or platforms that share and endorse each other’s content, serving to amplify and propagate material.

The goal of such dissemination techniques is to boost visibility while building credibility – based on the premise that audiences tend to trust information more if it’s widely reported by different actors or organisations.

An international operation

CIR has seen numerous examples of information laundering in different languages and online environments since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In 2023, our investigators worked alongside the BBC’s disinformation team to investigate Yala News – a UK-registered, Syrian-linked media company that was found to be spreading Russian state disinformation to millions in the Arabic-speaking world.

The topics and rhythm of Yala’s social media posts revealed traits of information laundering, with many of the posts identical to those seen on Russian state media just a few hours earlier.

Some videos – including one that claims President Zelensky was drunk and 'lost his mind’ – generated over a million views. According to Rodríguez, such content “hits the right audiences”, allowing outlets such as Yala to not only disseminate pro-Russian, anti-western messages but to drive their readership at the same time.

In another case, in February 2023, CIR saw a fake UK government letter circulated online and addressed to UK sponsors of Ukrainian refugees. The letter asked for the personal details of Ukrainian men living in the households, information that had allegedly been demanded by the Ukrainian Embassy in London for reasons unspecified.

It was an operation that Rodríguez describes as hybrid, combining a forgery with an information laundering operation that was designed to stoke fear among the Ukrainian refugee community while portraying the Ukrainian armed forces as desperate and running out of manpower – and prepared to go to cruel lengths to obtain recruits.

Such narratives were embedded into social media groups in countries supporting the Ukrainian war effort, like Lithuania and Latvia, with posts suggesting authorities were collecting information on Ukrainian men so they could be deported for conscription.

“They used that forgery as an initial entry point to a further influence campaign involving information laundering,” explains Rodríguez, adding that the letter was swiftly shared online alongside stories from individuals who had supposedly received it, or knew someone who had. These narratives were an attempt to add legitimacy to the claims, she says.

“This is how laundering works – online and offline networks mobilise to spread a piece of disinformation, in this case, a forgery.”

Sowing division, casting doubt

Like large-scale money laundering operations, it is the transfer of narratives into other countries’ political environments that helps to strengthen their credibility while serving the purpose of the launderer – making the strategy especially dangerous in the so-called year of elections.

Rodríguez says what is particularly concerning is Russia’s ability to embed its influence networks in different communities and launder information by “speaking the domestic language and understanding the domestic grievances.”

Recent CIR analysis shared with Bloomberg revealed how X (formerly Twitter) accounts being used to promote Russian interests in South Africa are attempting to rally support for a new party backed by former President Jacob Zuma. Investigators identified several accounts that praised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and drew parallels between Zuma’s leadership and Putin’s. One such account has around 170,000 followers and regularly interacts with other users to amplify its reach – at times generating over 1 million impressions per post.

Ahead of elections in the U.S. and Europe, military aid to Ukraine has been a key topic for debate, and American officials have expressed concern that Russia will increase support for candidates opposing Ukrainian aid.

Recent reporting by the New York Times details Russia’s intensified efforts to amplify arguments for isolationism, with the ultimate aim of derailing military funding for Ukraine. While the initial arguments against additional aid may be organic, it is the amplification that is being “engineered” by Russia through the replication and distortion of legitimate news sites – a clear example of the information laundering described by Rodríguez.

Another key Russian tactic to destabilise support for Ukraine is through attacks designed to discredit and undermine the country’s political figures. The Washington Post recently uncovered a Kremlin disinformation campaign designed to push the theme that Zelensky “is hysterical and weak”, and to “strengthen the conflict” between Zelensky and Zaluzhny – the top military commander he dismissed in early February.

One senior European security official commenting on the campaign told The Washington Post: “Russia survived and they are preparing a new campaign which consists of three main directions: first, pressure on the front line; second, attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure; and thirdly, this destabilization campaign.”

Fragmented societies and social media bubbles

But as democracies around the world prepare to open their polling booths, U.S. officials have also warned that Russia may be attempting to move beyond targeting individuals, instead sowing seeds of doubt over the future of democracy itself.

A U.S. review of elections between 2020 and 2022 identified 11 contests in nine countries where Russia attempted to undermine confidence in election outcomes. More subtle campaigns – which attempted to cast doubt and amplify domestic questions about the reliability of elections – were identified in a further 17 democracies.

While content moderation by Silicon Valley companies has been strengthened in the wake of the 2016 U.S. elections, research has repeatedly raised the issue of comparatively inconsistent and weak moderation of non-English language content, leaving hundreds of millions of voters particularly vulnerable to campaigns and strategies that Russia has expertly refined.

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen previously warned that 87% of Facebook’s spending on combating misinformation was spent on English content, despite only 9% of users being English speakers – a disturbing finding for non-English speaking voters as they head to the polls. Meanwhile, after Elon Musk’s controversial takeover of X, disinformation and hate speech reportedly surged.

Research indicates that public trust in government, the media and democracy is waning, while conspiracy theories have flourished in recent years, particularly in the wake of the pandemic, a trend noted by Rodríguez:

“Societies are suffering a post-covid effect, we’re still extremely divided, and audiences are being held in social media bubbles. It’s very easy to disseminate false narratives and amplify them online, shaping cognitive processes and impacting public perceptions.”

Coupled with weak or understaffed content moderation from social media companies, this fragmentation provides fertile ground for influence operations to thrive, Rodríguez warns.

“The recent changes in social media platforms like Twitter favour this trend. It is a very volatile environment in an electoral year.”

Ok, so it's not Europe but Europa. Close enough, I hope.