Securing Democracy Dispatch

In an analysis of RT and Sputnik posts on Telegram and X in 2024, ASD found 308 links to mirror websites, podcasts, or proxy accounts that allowed them to circumvent EU bans and continue reaching European audiences. “A complete ban is impossible”, but “staying vigilant and close to the target is the best tactic”, Open-Source Intelligence Analyst Larissa Doroshenko assesses.

Russian military bloggers responded to Ukraine’s large-scale covert drone attack on Russian capabilities with criticism of Russia’s military bureaucracy and information response, as well as calls for retaliation and abandonment of peace negotiations, Doroshenko writes.

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

• Strikes on Iran: Russian politicians and state media condemned and downplayed US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, arguing that the operation fell short of halting Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) “strongly condemned” the US strikes, warning that they threaten “to further undermine regional and global security”. Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev claimed that nuclear infrastructure “has been unaffected or sustained only minor damage”. RT corroborated that assessment by arguing that an Iranian reporter documented “only smoke from Fordow air defense” and “zero significant emergency activity”. Medvedev also speculated that production of nuclear weapons will continue, and RT again supported that statement by citing a former US diplomat and frequent RT contributor, Jim Jatras, who predicted that Iranians would likely prefer their country to follow a North Korean, rather than a Libyan, scenario.
• NATO Summit: Russian propaganda outlets contended that public statements made after the NATO summit signaled a shift away from a focus on the war in Ukraine and toward NATO countries’ readiness to negotiate with Russia. Life.ru called the Hague Summit Declaration “a stab in the back” for Ukraine because it mentioned the country just once and did not discuss the possibility of Ukrainian accession to the alliance. RT amplified Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s opinion that countries “who did not want to deal with Ukraine” prevailed and that fast-tracking Ukraine’s EU membership “would drag the EU into direct conflict with Russia”. Gazeta.ru reported that US President Donald Trump denied discussing a ceasefire during his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while propagandist Vladimir Solovyov noted that Trump did not promise any additional military aid for Ukraine. Life.ru also announced that, during the NATO summit, French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged that EU countries should plan future negotiations with Russia about arms control and trust building.

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

• Strikes on Iran: The PRC MFA “strongly condemn[ed]” the US strikes on Iran over the weekend and called on all parties to the conflict—“Israel in particular”—to reach a ceasefire agreement. This broad message was amplified by many PRC diplomatic accounts, such as the Embassy in the United States, the Ambassador to Colombia, and the Ambassador to the United Nations. The MFA promoted the PRC’s evacuation of its nationals out of Iran and a Pakistan-based diplomat promoted claims that Tehran had replaced GPS with a Chinese alternative. The PRC did not fully endorse the plan to close the Strait of Hormuz, with the MFA calling the area “vital” and for the conflict not to “impact (…) global economic development”. Some state media commentators poked fun at US entreaties to the PRC to help keep Hormuz open and others mocked a US commentator’s call for women to support the strikes. The MFA announced a joint draft ceasefire resolution with Russia and Pakistan, and state media amplified Russian President Vladimir Putin’s disapproval of the US strikes.
• NATO Summit: PRC messaging covered this week’s NATO Summit in the Hague critically. In response to an RT clip of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte defending the US strikes in Iran, the PRC ambassador to Nepal found the European leader “pale and panicky” and doubted whether people around the world would accept his explanation. The Global Times called the alliance a “designer of chaos” and portrayed it as “obsolete and irrelevant”. The Consul General in Osaka, Japan and China Daily highlighted the absence of NATO’s Indo-Pacific partners, while CGTN Europe highlighted Orbán’s opposition to Ukraine’s hypothetical membership in the organization. Xinhua and CGTN covered the anti-NATO demonstrations that accompanied the summit and interviewed protesters. 

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

• Strikes on Iran: Unsurprisingly, Iranian state media and officials firmly condemned US strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities. They insisted that the attack was a “grave violation” of international law and amplified both international and US-based criticism, including comments by members of the US Congress, who called the strikes an “impeachable offense” and “unconstitutional”. Iranian state outlets directly mocked Trump, posting memes of him bound, calling him a “lunatic”, and amplifying coverage of Americans booing him after hearing about the strikes at US Senator Bernie Sanders’ rally. Iranian state media also amplified assessments by US intelligence that contradicted the White House’s claims that Iran’s nuclear capabilities were “completely and fully obliterated”. State messengers further boosted coverage of Iran’s retaliatory strikes against a US military base in Qatar, with Press TV posing a question—“Which US bases in West Asia are within Iran’s missile crosshairs?”—alongside a video showing aerial images of different US bases with a target scope photoshopped on top.
• Israel-Iran Ceasefire: Iranian state messengers had a two-pronged response to news of a US-negotiated ceasefire between Israel and Iran. Immediately after Trump’s announcement, Iran’s Foreign Minister Sayed Abbas Araghchi denounced the ceasefire, claiming that there was “NO agreement” and that a final decision on the cessation of Iran’s military operations will be “made later”. Iranian state media similarly characterized the ceasefire as illegitimate, repeating allegations that Tehran never received the ceasefire proposals, insisting that Israel supposedly first breached the agreement, and suggesting the plan was only put forward to divert public opinion from US “humiliation” after Iran’s retaliatory airstrike. After it appeared that the ceasefire would hold, Iranian state messengers changed their approach to declare Tehran’s triumph. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei proclaimed Tehran’s “victory”. State outlets echoed this sentiment, repeating conservative commentator Steve Bannon’s assertion that Israel only agreed to the truce to “save itself” and claiming Israel “cowered behind” the United States and “pleaded” for a ceasefire.

EU-sanctioned Russian media remain Facebook “partners”: Facebook pages linked to Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik have continued to reemerge on Facebook’s list of active partners for its ad revenue-distribution program despite being sanctioned by the EU in 2022, according to an investigation by the nonprofit What to Fix. Senior Fellow Bret Schafer tells the Dispatch, “While it is important to note that the inclusion of Russian state media outlets on this list does not necessarily mean that Meta paid those outlets, this research does demonstrate potential holes in Meta’s enforcement of its own rules and its potential lack of compliance with US and EU sanctions. It also speaks to Russian state media’s ongoing attempts to circumvent bans and restrictions, often through sheer persistence.”

Suspected Kremlin hackers pose as State Department to target Russia expert: Hackers with suspected links to the Kremlin impersonated the US State Department—including using a realistic state.gov email domain—to compromise the accounts of a prominent Russian military researcher and expert. The campaign took “extensive measures to avoid raising … suspicions” and successfully bypassed safeguards like multi-factor authentication, according to researchers from Citizen Lab. Managing Director David Salvo says, “Russia’s interference tactics are constantly evolving, but one way to disrupt their operations is to expose them. By showing how Russia’s methods bypass multi-factor authentication to target individuals, rather than infiltrate entire organizations like we’ve grown accustomed to them doing, Citizen Lab and Google’s investigations may force Russia to adapt their tactics yet again. The fact that industry and civil society quickly exposed the operation not only helps to build resilience, but it also underscores the importance of having a counter-foreign interference ecosystem where all sectors of democratic society play a role. That’s even more necessary in the absence of meaningful US government activity in this space right now.”

In Case You Missed It

• Suspected Russian spies collaborated with Argentine citizens to allegedly create and spread pro-Kremlin content on social media, influence local organizations, and gather intelligence, according to Argentine intelligence.
• Meta’s internal oversight board ruled that the company’s labeling of artificial intelligence on platforms is “inconsistent” and expressed concern over its reliance on third parties to assess whether content is manipulated.
• Twenty-two Telegram channels with ties to the Kremlin and disguised as Polish news services have spread pro-Russian content to diminish Polish citizens’ support for Ukraine, according to a BBC investigation.
• Meta, Microsoft, and TikTok have failed to meet EU standards for supporting fact-checkers, while Google performed well, according to the European Digital Media Observatory.
• Israel used Google ads in five European countries to generate support for its military action against Iran, researchers found; some ads stressed Iranian missile threats to Europe.

How our foreign rivals exploited LA protests to spread disinformation. ASD research cited in The Dallas Morning News

The Indicator guide to connecting websites together using OSINT tools and methods. ASD research/“Information Laundromat” cited in Indicator newsletter

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