{"id":62283,"date":"2024-04-06T22:23:36","date_gmt":"2024-04-06T20:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/carbon-management-and-negative-emissions-the-european-perspective-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-04-07T00:20:03","modified_gmt":"2024-04-06T22:20:03","slug":"impact-of-russian-disinformation-geopolitics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/en\/impact-of-russian-disinformation-geopolitics\/","title":{"rendered":"Impact of Russian Disin\u00adfor\u00admation in Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Foto: GEOpol\u00aditics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=\u201d.vc_custom_1508251598805{margin-top: 30px !important;}\u201d][vc_column width=\u201c2\/3\u201d css=\u201d.vc_custom_1508252250311{padding-right: 20px !important;}\u201d][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine, Russian propa\u00adganda in the West and in Germany has taken on a different dimension. It is aimed at under\u00admining Western democracy, stirring up fear and weakening support for Ukraine. An article by Khatia Kikalishvili for GEOpolitics.<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

It is no secret that disin\u00adfor\u00admation and foreign infor\u00admation manip\u00adu\u00adlation and inter\u00adference (FIMI) pose long-term threats to liberal democ\u00adracies. Since the start of Russia\u2019s full-scale war in Ukraine, Russian propa\u00adganda in the West and in Germany has taken on a different dimension. It aims to undermine Western democracy, stir up fear, and weaken the support for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

There is no question that an insti\u00adtu\u00adtional defense mechanism against propa\u00adganda should be strengthened to boost the resilience of societies and the state. Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnately, in the past, the dangers of Russian propa\u00adganda have not been taken seriously enough in Germany, both among the population and in politics. This article describes the main instru\u00adments of Russian propa\u00adganda in Germany, their impact on society and politics, and the strategies Berlin is pursuing to combat disin\u00adfor\u00admation and FIMI.<\/p>\n

Means and Methods of Russian Propa\u00adganda in Germany<\/h3>\n

Russian propa\u00adganda has various methods and instru\u00adments to influence public opinion in Germany. Russian propa\u00adganda has been system\u00adat\u00adi\u00adcally pursued in Germany, partic\u00adu\u00adlarly since the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Russia relies on a complex network of state or state-controlled actors to spread disin\u00adfor\u00admation, including the German-language Russian state media, official diplo\u00admatic and Kremlin-affil\u00adiated social media accounts, political organi\u00adza\u00adtions, cultural associ\u00ada\u00adtions, oligarchs, founda\u00adtions, and think tanks. The narra\u00adtives and disin\u00adfor\u00admation mainly focus on allega\u00adtions, stereo\u00adtypes, texts, and videos with content in line with Russia\u2019s propa\u00adganda message box, which aims to convince, scare, and alarm the German public.<\/p>\n

The Russian state\u2019s foreign television channel, Russia Today (RT), has proven to be a partic\u00adu\u00adlarly successful player since the start of the Russian invasion in 2014. In March 2022, the European Union decided to ban RT across Europe for distorting facts and attempts at desta\u00adbi\u00adlization. Never\u00adtheless, the broad\u00adcaster can still be accessed as RT DE provided its users with detailed infor\u00admation on how to circumvent the restric\u00adtions. In February 2023, the online content was available on six pages with different URLs. Interview guests and guest authors who regularly published on RT DE can still be found on \u201calter\u00adnative media,\u201d such as the YouTube channel InfraRot Medien \u2014 Sicht ins Dunkel and the blog Anti-Spiegel, as well as Alina Lipp\u2019s Neues aus Russland. All of these actors are Putin supporters who justify the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Crisis topics are also trendy: refugees, energy, and inflation. The German government is notori\u00adously portrayed as incom\u00adpetent, and a lot of attention is given to anti-NATO and anti-American narra\u00adtives. According to the study conducted in 2022, almost one in five people surveyed in Germany agreed with the statement that the Russian war of aggression was a reaction by Russia to a provo\u00adcation by NATO, while 21% partially agreed. In total, almost 40% of those surveyed agreed with the Russian version either fully or partially.<\/p>\n

Another influ\u00adential instrument of Russian propa\u00adganda in Germany is \u201cfake accounts,\u201d which delib\u00ader\u00adately spread false infor\u00admation about Ukraine and attempt to influence domestic politics. Fake links often use the logos of German and inter\u00adna\u00adtional online magazines (Spiegel, Welt, Bild, and Daily Mail) while spreading pro-Russian propa\u00adganda. With such coordi\u00adnated influence campaigns, Russia is attempting to manip\u00adulate German society\u2019s opinion and influence political decisions in the Kremlin\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n

In January 2024, the German Foreign Ministry uncovered a massive Russian campaign of lies on the X platform. In September 2023, a tweet was allegedly spread by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock that \u201cthe war in Ukraine will be over in three months.\u201d It is estimated that over 50,000 fake accounts and one million tweets in the German language are used by Russian propa\u00adganda channels to manip\u00adulate public opinion. There is also evidence of the use of artificial intel\u00adli\u00adgence. With the European elections and three state elections in eastern Germany coming up, where the pro-Putin and right-wing populist party Alter\u00adnative for Germany (AfD) is expected to receive a signif\u00adicant number of votes (according to the latest polls, around 30%), there is a high risk that Russia could intervene in the election campaigns to distort the electoral results.<\/p>\n

German Domestic Politics and Russian Propaganda<\/h3>\n

Russian propa\u00adganda often relies on open letters, petitions, and calls for peace negoti\u00ada\u00adtions between Ukraine and Russia, which the West allegedly prevents. The left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht often uses the distorted state\u00adments of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, or Western politi\u00adcians, which are usually taken out of context and prolif\u00aderated by Russian propa\u00adganda media. Wagenknecht has repeatedly claimed that the Ukrainian president is against peace negoti\u00ada\u00adtions and publicly advocated stopping all arms exports to Ukraine to push it to the negoti\u00adation table. Her party \u2014 Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance \u2013 Reason and Justice, founded in January 2024, already has 6% nationwide, which indicates that it could be elected to the Bundestag in 2025 and the European Parliament in June 2024. The European elections manifesto of Wagenknecht\u2019s party rejects Ukraine\u2019s accession to the EU and empha\u00adsizes that the war in Ukraine is a bloody proxy war between NATO and Russia.<\/p>\n

The Manifesto for Peace in Ukraine, written by Wagenknecht and supported by one of the leaders of the right-wing populist AfD, also advocates for suspending military support to Ukraine. On 25 February 2023, the manifesto drew over 13,000 persons near the Brandenburg Gate, causing intense debates in the German media and political spectrum. Such manifestos and similar under\u00adtakings are success\u00adfully used by the alter\u00adnative press against Ukraine and the West to scare the population with the possi\u00adbility of a nuclear war with Russia. It is clear that anti-Western narra\u00adtives and the message that the West is to blame for the war, spear\u00adheaded by the Russian propa\u00adganda machine, are finding fertile ground among the radical right and left electorate in Germany.<\/p>\n

Following Chancellor Olaf Scholz\u2019s public rejection of the delivery of Taurus missiles to Ukraine, the Russian media published a wiretapped recording of a Webex conver\u00adsation of German military officers. Among other topics, the conver\u00adsation discussed whether Taurus missiles would be techni\u00adcally capable of destroying the bridge built by Russia connecting the Russian mainland with the Crimean Peninsula. They also discussed whether Ukraine could manage the shelling without the involvement of the Bundeswehr, for example, in target programming. The recording also revealed that there is no green light at the political level for the delivery of the cruise missiles to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

It is clear that the Taurus affair demon\u00adstrated the Kremlin\u2019s power by showing that the FSB could listen to the German generals and their commu\u00adni\u00adcation system. The question remains about where else and how deeply the FSB carries out such surveil\u00adlance opera\u00adtions in Germany. Furthermore, it is certainly no coinci\u00addence that the recording was published a day after Navalny\u2019s funeral and the revela\u00adtions about the Wirecard scandal. However, a major goal of this leak was to ensure that Taurus missiles would not be sent to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin has thus created an atmos\u00adphere in which the majority of the German population is even more opposed to the delivery of the Taurus missiles to Ukraine; according to recent surveys, 59% of Germans are against it, and only 34% are in favor. In addition, the Taurus affair ensured that the Chancellor continued to categor\u00adi\u00adcally rule out the Taurus delivery despite increasing opposing opinions in the governing coalition and the CDU-CSU faction. The affair also reinforces Chancellor Scholz\u2019s fears that the missiles could be fired at targets in Russia without German control and that Germany would thus be drawn into the war. In doing so, he is, above all, signaling mistrust towards his Ukrainian partners. And sowing distrust between Ukraine and Germany is clearly a goal Russian propa\u00adganda aspires to achieve.<\/p>\n

The Taurus affair demon\u00adstrated how pro-Russian forces in Germany embraced the Russian narrative that the German military was preparing for a war of aggression against Russia. Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), Dietmar Bartsch (Linke), and Tino Chrupalla (AfD), despite different political platforms, gladly embraced this spin, which origi\u00adnated in Moscow from the Russian propa\u00adganda media. Russian propa\u00adgan\u00addists, like Dmitrii Kiseliov, threatened to retaliate against Germany and hit such targets as the Fehmarnbelt Bridge, the Hohen\u00adzollern Bridge in Cologne, the Rugen Bridge, and the Magdeburg Water Bridge. When German politi\u00adcians start repeating Russian propaganda\u2019s talking points, the disin\u00adfor\u00admation prolif\u00aderates and is a lot harder to counter.<\/p>\n

Insti\u00adtu\u00adtional Response to Russian Propaganda<\/h3>\n

Since the beginning of 2022, the German government has expanded its efforts to combat disin\u00adfor\u00admation at the insti\u00adtu\u00adtional level. The Federal Foreign Office plays an important role in this, focusing on disin\u00adfor\u00admation and FIMI origi\u00adnating from foreign states. The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) coordi\u00adnates the detection of and defense against hybrid threats, partic\u00adu\u00adlarly disin\u00adfor\u00admation, across the depart\u00adments. The BMI\u2019s activ\u00adities include the Link to Factchecker on the federal govern\u00adment\u2019s website, regular press briefings on the topic, and outreach to the Parliament. The Minister of the Interior presented a strategy against right-wing extremism in February 2024, which, among other things, includes the estab\u00adlishment of an early detection unit of the federal government to identify foreign disin\u00adfor\u00admation campaigns well in advance.<\/p>\n

In February 2024, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock took a further step against Russian cyber propa\u00adganda with her French and Polish colleagues, St\u00e9phane S\u00e9journ\u00e9 and Radoslaw Sikorski. The three countries agreed on a joint early warning mechanism against Russian troll attacks. During the European elections, the French government expects a massive increase in Russian activ\u00adities aimed at disin\u00adfor\u00admation and influ\u00adencing popular opinions in multiple European countries. According to the French Ministry of Defense, we are \u201conly at the beginning of a major wave of fake news.\u201d Given the tense relationship between France and Germany over the Taurus issue, the public received the revival of the so-called \u201cWeimar Triangle\u201d positively.<\/p>\n

There are encour\u00adaging signs at the state and civil society level, especially after 22 February 2022, that the threat of Russian propa\u00adganda is taken seriously in Germany. According to March 2024 data, 82% of the German population considers Russia\u2019s attempts to influence politics in Germany with false infor\u00admation and intel\u00adli\u00adgence activ\u00adities to be very dangerous or dangerous. In addition to creating new strategies and coordi\u00adnation centers, increasing attention is paid to education in schools and univer\u00adsities aimed at strength\u00adening media literacy. Prebunking is one of the most successful means of defusing disin\u00adfor\u00admation. It provides an oppor\u00adtunity to take proactive action against false infor\u00admation before it is spread and to sensitize people and strengthen their resilience to propa\u00adganda content.<\/p>\n

Never\u00adtheless, more vigilance and political will from the democ\u00adratic center would be desirable to educate people about the danger of Russian disin\u00adfor\u00admation, objec\u00adtively describe how the Kremlin is endan\u00adgering the European security archi\u00adtecture, and explain what it would mean for Germany if Putin won the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

More courage is now required in politics, civil society, and the media to jointly combat Russia\u2019s hybrid war against the West and with long-term results. The campaign for the 2025 federal elections has already unoffi\u00adcially begun. The Taurus missile affair and the analysis of Russian propa\u00adganda during the last two years show that the fear of being dragged into the war affects political decision-making and discourse in Germany. The German public appears just as vulnerable to Russian foreign infor\u00admation manip\u00adu\u00adlation and inter\u00adference as any other European nation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The article appeared in GEOpol\u00aditics on April 4, 2024.[\/vc_column_text]<\/p>

To the GEOpol\u00aditics Article<\/a><\/div> [vc_\u200bcolumn_\u200btext]\n

\"Textende\"[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_column_text]Hat Ihnen unser Beitrag gefallen? Dann spenden Sie doch einfach und bequem \u00fcber unser Spendentool. Sie unter\u00adst\u00fctzen damit die publizis\u00adtische Arbeit von LibMod.<\/p>\n

Spenden mit Bankeinzug<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]