The European Union's disinformation-busting team last month debunked a Russian-language video on YouTube that said citizens were fleeing dictatorship in EU member Poland and seeking refuge in Belarus, a close ally of Moscow

The story peddled recurring pro-Kremlin narratives of Warsaw holding aggressive militaristic intentions and of democratic failings in Poland and the wider EU, the team known as Stratcom said.

It was also part of what Stratcom says is a broader Russian disinformation campaign that Europe is widely seen as struggling to counter before an election to the European Parliament on June 6-9.

The video fitted a pattern: Russia-linked websites take pro-Kremlin content from state-controlled outlets or pro-Kremlin social media accounts, repackage it, including with translation, and spread it via new channels to target EU audiences, EU officials say.

Russia is widely accused of having waged disinformation campaigns targeting elections in the United States, Europe and Britain over the last decade although Moscow had denied it uses disinformation to influence public opinion.

A U.S. intelligence assessment in 2023 found Moscow was using spies, social media and Russian state-run media to erode public faith in the integrity of elections worldwide.

How the EU says Russia is spreading disinformation

WHAT DOES ALLEGED RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE LOOK LIKE?

Allegations of Russian interference in EU affairs in the run-up to the election include:

  • Disinformation, with alleged manipulation of the truth ranging from amplifying already-existing conspiracy theories to deepfake videos and the publication of falsehoods on ‘doppelganger’ sites created to look identical to bona fide sites, experts say.
  • The Czech Republic said news website voiceofeurope.com had been leading a pro-Russian influence operation in Europe. A pro-Russian Ukrainian politician and businessman, Viktor Medvedchuk, covertly financed the Voice of Europe’s influence operations, it said.
  • Belgium said Russian officials had paid European Parliament lawmakers to promote Russian propaganda in Europe.

HOW DOES RUSSIA RESPOND TO THE ACCUSATIONS OF INTERFERENCE?

Russia denies spreading disinformation. It says the West is involved in a full-scale information war involving fake claims designed to destroy Russia’s reputation and cast it as an enemy.

Russian officials say the West has become so intolerant that it refuses to accept any view that contradicts the prevailing dominant narrative and has banned distribution of some Russian state media outlets such as RIA Novosti news agency and newspapers Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

WHAT ARE ‘DEEPFAKES’ AND ‘DOPPELGANGER’ SITES?

Deepfakes are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else’s likeness using AI (artificial intelligence) techniques. Deepfakes can be highly realistic. This has led to the spread of disinformation and propaganda.

In Slovakia’s 2023 election, a voice recording emerged of Michal Simecka, leader of the Progressive Slovakia party, apparently discussing rigging the vote. The recording was fake.

Doppelganger is the name attributed to a disinformation campaign that involves the creation of fake websites that very closely resemble the appearance of existing news sources.

Websites targeted include daily newspapers Le Figaro and Die Welt as well as the French foreign ministry and German interior ministry.

An article on a cloned French foreign ministry website alleged that France was preparing a tax to help Ukraine’s war effort. Some 200 Facebook accounts were created to disseminate the information.

WHAT DO EUROPEAN OFFICIALS MEAN BY RUSSIAN ECHO CHAMBER?

European officials accuse Russian state-controlled media, officials and it diplomatic network of being an echo chamber for fake news by raising the profile of unproven information to lend it credibility.

Russia’s defence ministry alleged in January that France had sent mercenaries to Ukraine. The unsubstantiated allegation spread quickly through pro-Russian outlets and was pushed by Russia’s parliament as a fact despite vigorous denials by Paris.

WHAT DO EU LEADERS SAY ABOUT ALLEGED RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE?

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said Europe faces a stark choice: be strong or submit to authoritarians.

“Do we want a strong Europe that fights for our values and our democracy? Or, on the other hand, do we let our democracies be hijacked by the proxies and puppets of authoritarians?,” she said.

WHAT ABOUT HOW THE EU REGULATES SOCIAL MEDIA?

The EU’s new Digital Services Act demands the swift removal of illegal content and more information on how content is aggregated and other practices related to deceptive advertising and deceptive political content.

Facebook parent Meta Platforms META.O, YouTube parent Google GOOGL.O and TikTok have announced measures including the creation of teams to counter disinformation, AI abuse and covert influence relating to the European Parliament elections.

In April, the European Commission, the EU executive, launched an investigation into Meta Platforms’ Facebook and Instagram over concerns the company was failing to do enough to counter disinformation.

European capitals have warned of a pre-election surge in disinformation, but its impact is hard to gauge.

“Influence operations by Russia, China and other actors, including domestic groups, have the potential to disrupt online conversations around the EU election,” said Jack Stubbs, chief intelligence officer at social network analysis firm Graphika.

“We’ve seen evidence to suggest that even the people conducting the operations can struggle to understand if they are having an impact.”

Russia’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Moscow dismisses Western allegations that it is spreading disinformation.

Stratcom, a team of 40 that runs on a shoestring budget of 15 million euros ($16.3 million), is on the front line of Brussels’ battle against disinformation. But the 27-nation bloc is under-resourced for the fight, two EU officials said.

“We cannot stage an offensive from Brussels,” said Peter Stano, spokesperson for the European Commission’s diplomatic service, adding such action had to happen at member-state level.

Most, though not all, EU countries do wage their own fight against disinformation but resources vary and experts say the European effort is disjointed.

This has left mainstream parties vulnerable to disinformation campaigns that amplify grievances that are fuelling voter discontent and underpinning support for nationalist parties in France, Germany and elsewhere.

According to the EU’s second annual disinformation report published this year, Poland and Germany were the most targeted nations inside the EU. France and non-EU member Serbia were also among the top targets.

FRAGMENTED RESPONSE

Moscow, whose relations with Western governments have sunk since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, says the West is waging an information war involving fake claims aimed at destroying Russia’s reputation and casting it as an enemy.

Officials in Russia, which has suppressed dissent under President Vladimir Putin, say the West has become so intolerant that it refuses to accept any view that contradicts the prevailing dominant narrative.

France’s European affairs minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, told newspaper Ouest France in April that his country was “pounded” by Russian disinformation.

Attacks against France include the creation of a fake French government website alleging 200,000 citizens were being called up to fight in Ukraine and a Paris bed bug scare that was amplified by Kremlin-backed activities and went viral.

“Not a week goes by without France being the target of coordinated and deliberate manoeuvres to disrupt public debate and interfere in the campaign for the European elections,” Barrot told the newspaper.

Tomasz Chlon, the Polish government’s international disinformation commissioner, told Reuters that blocking websites was like squeezing a balloon because they crop up elsewhere.

Efforts to fight disinformation vary across Europe.

France has tasked its Viginum foreign disinformation watchdog – which has a team of 42 and is growing – with monitoring Russia-linked social media accounts and uncovering influence operations. Spain has a dedicated taskforce that uses hardware designed by Europol to coordinate its state response.

Italy’s political opposition has drafted legislation that would create a unit dedicated to identifying acts of disinformation. Slovakia, whose government faces accusations of favouring Russia, has mostly gutted a unit it said was staffed by “activist clerks” in charge of ensuring “there is only one correct opinion.”

“The overall response is very fragmented,” said Valentin Chatelet, a researcher at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Lab.

In a sign of Europe’s intent to act more forcefully, EU nations last month suspended four Russian media entities, including Czech-registered website Voice of Europe, calling them Kremlin-linked propaganda networks.

The Kremlin said there would be repercussions for Western journalists in Moscow in retaliation.

The EU’s new Digital Services Act (DSA) requires Big Tech to do more to counter illegal and harmful content. Generative AI has made it faster and easier for foreign actors to spread misinformation, EU officials say.

“Before with trolls and bots, there was usually a person behind it. With AI, everything has multiplied,” Stano said.