Securing Democracy Dispatch

RT Deutsch, Russian state media’s primary German-language outlet, has lost much of its audience due to bans imposed after the invasion of Ukraine. Its content lives on, however, through new, clandestine channels such as podcast recordings. Read ASD’s investigation of RT Deutsch’s content laundering here.

Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week:

• War in Ukraine: Last week, Russian officials and state media trumpeted Ukraine’s supposed defeat and amplified the Trump administration’s criticism of Ukraine. Russian Ambassador to Mexico Nikolay Sofinskiy declared Ukraine “a failed state” that “sacrificed everything” for the geopolitical games of other countries. RT quoted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who announced that “the Ukraine experiment” had failed and ruled out Ukrainian membership in the EU or NATO. TASS repeated Trump’s comments that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former US President Joe Biden, not Russia, were responsible for the “outbreak of the conflict” in Ukraine. Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyev proclaimed that “Washington’s new party line” was represented by Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who concluded that the United States is not “paying for [Ukraine’s] war anymore.”
• German Bundestag Elections: Russian propaganda outlets celebrated the loss of outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the success of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in last Sunday’s Bundestag elections. RT labeled SDP’s results a “historic defeat”, noting that it was the party’s “worst outcome ever”. Lenta.ru echoed this conclusion, yet cautiously noted that the winners, the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union, support the supply of long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine. TASS highlighted that AfD won elections in all federal states of the former German Democratic Republic. Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyev reiterated Trump’s assessment of the election results as “a great day for Germany” and emphasized comments from likely future Chancellor Friedrich Merz who described Washington’s intervention in the elections as “no less dramatic, radical, and ultimately outrageous” than interference from Moscow.

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week: 

• Ukraine Negotiations: PRC messaging covered negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine last week. CGTN Europe’s TikTok account was especially active, with 24 videos mentioning “Ukraine” between February 20 and February 26. Those videos notably touched on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military priorities, his offer to jointly exploit Ukrainian rare earth minerals with the United States, Trump’s decision to blame Zelenskyy for supposedly starting the war, Orbán’s suggestion that Ukraine should become a buffer zone, as well as NATO’s defense spending increases and military exercises. Together, the ten most viewed CGTN Europe TikTok videos mentioning Ukraine brought in more than 2.5 million views as of February 26. Xinhua, CGTN and the Global Times also amplified French President Emmanuel Macron’s correction of his US counterpart’s approximations concerning European aid to Ukraine.
• South African G20: After South Africa hosted the G20’s foreign and finance ministers last week, the spokesperson for the PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) amplified Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s proclamation that this year “represents an African moment at the G20”. That message was relayed by PRC diplomats in Austria, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States. The MFA spokesperson, CGTN, CCTV, China News, and the Global Times all highlighted the meeting between Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart on the sidelines of the foreign ministers’ meeting. CGTN commented that top US officials’ absence added to “global confusion about [US] aims”, while the head of China Daily in Europe claimed that the G20 was now more relevant than the “outdated” G7.

Russian-linked group allegedly shares false videos alleging election fraud in German city: Officials in the German city of Leipzig dismissed claims made in two fabricated videos that circulated online ahead of the country’s parliamentary elections last weekend. The videos, which German officials believe were disseminated by a known Russian-linked online influence group, suggested that ballots in a Leipzig district omitted the name of a candidate for AfD and that ballots marked for AfD were shredded. Senior Fellow Bret Schafer told the Dispatch, “With a nascent ‘election integrity’ movement taking hold in Germany, it is unsurprising that Russian-linked influence actors resorted to the same tactics they used ahead of the US presidential election, where there was a clear effort to elevate claims of voter fraud through fabricated videos. The good news is that the public and private sectors are getting better at catching these efforts in real time. The bad news is that Russia has not been remotely deterred, and may now feel emboldened, in its efforts to undermine Western democracies.”

PRC-linked hackers accessed RNC emails before 2024 convention: PRC-linked hackers had access to the US Republican National Committee’s (RNC) email system for months, reportedly looking for information about how the Republican Party platform would address Taiwan, before Microsoft alerted top RNC officials last July, according to a new book. The RNC did not inform the FBI. Co-Managing Director Rachael Dean Wilson said, “It is clear that foreign actors were targeting both the Democratic and Republican parties during the 2024 election cycle. While this operation’s objective seems to be in the lane of more traditional espionage, it is a reminder that foreign interference efforts hurt all Americans, regardless of party or political beliefs, and it is a problem that the federal government, state officials, and local communities should tackle together.” 

In Case You Missed It

• PRC-linked hackers stole data from Belgium’s state security services between 2021 and 2023, including email correspondence with law enforcement and government institutions, as well as intelligence staff members’ personal information. 
• Twenty-one US civil servants who were assigned to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency quit, citing concerns that they were asked to take action that would compromise Americans’ data and dismantle important government services.
• State-backed hackers are increasingly sharing advanced cyber weapons with politically motivated civilian hacking groups, according to a cybersecurity firm’s new report.
• Estonia launched a nationwide educational program to teach high schoolers how to use artificial intelligence (AI), with the aid of US companies OpenAI and Anthropic.

The political rise of the anti-vax movement. Senior Fellow Bret Schafer quoted in Financial Times

Russia disinformation campaign targets German election during Ukraine war. Research Analyst Etienne Soula quoted in ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) News

Schaduwkanalen in de algoritmes: Hoe RT Deutsch EU-sancties omzeilt met geautomatiseerde netwerken. ASD research/“No Bahn on RT” highlighted in Indegazette (in Dutch)

“That’s one of the real risks. We’re losing the ability to trust what we see and hear. And once it’s out there, the damage can be done.”

—Australian Member of Parliament Aaron Violi, in comments to the Canberra Times released on February 22 about the dangers of AI-generated political deepfakes.

The views expressed in GMF publications and commentary are the views of the author alone.