Short-form insights and rapid-reaction analysis of breaking news and global events.
On April 24, French voters re-elected Emmanuel Macron for a second term as president of France. With the presidential election firmly in the rear-view mirror and with the French parliamentary elections still several weeks away, this piece assesses t [...]
The 2020 presidential election cycle was abnormally long, with chaos, debate about the outcome, and an insurrection before it finally concluded—at least officially—on inauguration day in January 2021. Now just over a year later, the United States mu [...]
Russia Russian propagandists last week reacted to Finland and Sweden’s announced bids to join NATO by threatening military retaliation, accusing the two countries of violating international agreements, and highlighting division within NATO. Russia’s [...]
Since the war in Ukraine started, Chinese diplomats and state media have attempted to portray their country as a neutral third party interested only in restoring peace to Europe. But that effort has been belied by Beijing’s own messaging, which has [...]
Finland and Sweden are applying for NATO membership, with both countries drawing a direct link between the Russian military’s unconscionable war against neighboring Ukraine and the need for the formal security guarantees the NATO alliance provides. [...]
Russia Russian government-affiliated Twitter accounts marked Victory Day, which celebrates the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazis in World War II, by launching a patriotic messaging push across social media. Russian diplomats and state media posted more [...]
Russia Russian diplomats and state media last week posted 764 tweets that referenced either “gas” or “rubles” as propagandists detailed Europe’s effort to cope with Moscow’s decision to cut gas supplies for Poland and Bulgaria. Russia made the move [...]
As any American expat abroad will tell you, living far from the United States gives you a clearer view. My 25 years overseas startled me with realizations about my country, from weird little things (why do we have so many types of breakfast cereal?) [...]
This week, Alliance for Securing Democracy launched “Ballots and Bagels: Conversations with Trusted Election Sources,” an interview series hosted by Elections Integrity Fellow David Levine that aims to highlight the successes of and lessons learned [...]
“Ballots and Bagels: Conversations with Trusted Election Sources” is a series by the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) hosted by Elections Integrity Fellow David Levine. Given that a large portion of Americans still think the 2020 election was s [...]
Russia Russian diplomats and state media last week posted more than 800 tweets that referenced “Mariupol” or “Azovstal,” which is the name of a steel plant in the city that has become a holdout for Ukrainian soldiers. Kremlin-linked accounts celebra [...]
Highlights The Russian Embassy in Paris was the author of nine of the top ten tweets by French-language Russian accounts last week. As in previous weeks, its messaging focused on the war in Ukraine and ignored domestic French politics. Russian st [...]
French voters can be confident that no matter who they vote for in the second round of their presidential election, the process will reflect the will of the French people. But if they hope to have similar confidence in the integrity of future electi [...]
Russia Russian diplomats and state media last week mentioned “Mariupol” in nearly 500 tweets as they blamed Ukrainian Nazis and their Western backers for war crimes committed in the battered Ukrainian port city. Diplomatic accounts claimed that Ukra [...]
Overview China’s response to the establishment of a Taiwanese Representative Office in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius serves as the most recent example of the perniciousness of economic coercion. Since China’s “Go Out” economic policy was implemente [...]
Highlights The Russian Embassy in France attempted to deny and deflect after evidence of mass killings in Bucha shocked the French public last week. Top tweets by the embassy implied that the killings only surfaced days after Ukrainian troops took o [...]
Russia The push by Russian propagandists last week to distort information on the atrocities in Bucha marked the Kremlin’s most aggressive disinformation campaign of the war. Russian diplomats and state media tweeted the term “Bucha” more than 1,000 [...]
A report from the Alliance for Securing Democracy and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue by Iris Boyer, Zoé Fourel, Sasha Morinière, Bret Schafer, and Etienne Soula. Introduction On March 2, 2022, Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik were [...]
On Sunday, April 10, French voters will choose which two of the 12 presidential candidates will proceed to the second-round runoff. Most polls predict incumbent Emmanuel Macron to come in first, with far-right candidate Marine Le Pen or far-left can [...]
ASD's David Levine and GMF's Gesine Weber lay out four questions French voters should ask ahead of the presidential election. In its 2017 presidential election, France withstood one of the most significant efforts by the Kremlin to interfere in a [...]
Russia Russian diplomats and state media last week spread disinformation to discredit reporting on Russia’s alleged war crimes in Bucha, Ukraine. With images of destruction and death in Bucha coming to light as Russian troops leave the area, Kremlin [...]
This piece was written by Zsuzsanna Vegh and Bret Schafer with support from Logically AI. Hungary is holding parliamentary elections on April 3 that will decide whether the Fidesz-led Orbán government continues in office for a fourth consecutive te [...]
Russia Last week, “Biden” was the third most used phrase by Russian diplomats and state media on Twitter, as Kremlin-linked accounts attacked the U.S. president for saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin was a “butcher” who “cannot remain in p [...]
Highlights Despite being less than a month away from the first round of the presidential election in France, the elections have received far less coverage in state-backed media outlets than the war in Ukraine and other topics. None of the top 10 key [...]
For years, the United States has sought to use sanctions to achieve several aims related to Russia, including preventing, deterring, and punishing 1) the strategic corruption that President Vladimir Putin uses to advance Russian foreign policy, 2) h [...]
Russia Russian diplomats and state media last week promoted new evidence to support their conspiracy narrative about the presence of U.S.-funded bioweapon labs in Ukraine, though the number of tweets from Russian propagandists with the term “biologi [...]
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine serves as a reminder for democracies big and small of the stakes of maintaining free and open societies in the face of rising illiberalism, autocracy, and totalitarianism. And despite the seemingly insurmountable odds fo [...]
Russia Russian diplomats and state media last week tweeted the word “biological” nearly 600 times as they advanced their disinformation campaign about U.S.-funded bioweapon facilities in Ukraine. U.S. officials and independent reporters have stated [...]
On February 4, 2022, Russia and China surprised many observers by releasing a joint statement promising a “no limits” friendship, which they described as “superior to political and military alliances of the Cold War era.” Just after the Beijing Olym [...]
Russia Kremlin-linked messengers last week pushed a series of false claims about Ukraine’s pursuit of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. On Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had documents that show Kyiv ordered the “emergency destruc [...]
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has shocked the European Union and its member states into decisive action. With Germany upending decades of foreign policy choices and unprecedented economic sanctions imposed on key parts of the Russian economy and l [...]
Russia Russian state media celebrated Putin’s recognition on Monday of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic, sharing images of fireworks and people waving Russian flags in the regions. Russian President Vladimir Putin just [...]
Russian disinformation on the Kremlin-instigated crisis in Ukraine reached a new level of intensity between February 14 and February 20, 2022. Months of Russian warnings about a Ukrainian provocation developed into baseless accusations that Ukrainia [...]
As Russia has menaced Ukraine with a buildup of troops in recent weeks—and even after those forces ultimately crossed the border—much media and expert commentary has focused on what the U.S. and EU sanctions response should be, analyzing its effects [...]
Russia Russian disinformation on the Kremlin-instigated crisis in Ukraine reached a new level of intensity last week. Months of Russian warnings about a Ukrainian provocation developed into baseless accusations that Ukrainian forces had launched an [...]
As France gears up for a presidential election in April, several foreign officials and state-sponsored media are promoting narratives in France’s public debate that are conducive to their foreign interests, sometimes to the detriment of French democ [...]
Russia Russian officials last week continued to insist that Moscow has no plans to invade Ukraine and made more calls for diplomatic solutions. Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations claimed there is “not even a hint of common sense [...]
Overview Chinese diplomats and state media’s relentless promotion of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics between November 1, 2021 and February 1, 2022 highlights the crucial importance of the games for China. More than a sporting competition, Beijing s [...]
One hundred countries joined Biden’s Summit for Democracy in December 2021 to demonstrate their commitment to, and develop strategies to defend, democracy during a time of increased autocratic threats. While the event was largely aspirational and sp [...]
Russia Russian officials and state media last week pushed familiar narratives about Ukraine, claiming NATO is the aggressor and Russia is seeking a peaceful solution. On February 1, President Vladimir Putin spoke for the first time since December ab [...]