Securing Democracy Dispatch

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US foreign adversaries have targeted American communities far beyond the Beltway with information manipulation. Join ASD and World Affairs Council of Charlotte for an in-person discussion on how this impacts communities in North Carolina and other states on Thursday, May 29! Sign up here.

Managing Director David Salvo will also be moderating a panel on foreign interference in Canada’s 2025 federal elections at the Canadian Vote Summit in Montreal on Tuesday, May 20. Register here!

Hamilton 2.0 Analysis

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

“Cocaine Train” Video: Russian propaganda outlets promoted false claims that suggested that French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer took drugs while on a train to Kyiv. RT seeded the allegations by sharing a low-resolution video from a train compartment, claiming that, when journalists arrived, the three leaders hastily cleared the table “with awkward smiles”. RT en Español elaborated that Macron and Merz hid a white object and a utensil, noting that two years ago Macron also purportedly hid his expensive watch from the cameras. Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyev labeled the object “a strange little bag with white powder”, while RT’s Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan speculated that the utensil was “a cocaine spoon”. RT en Español also interviewed Florian Philippot, the head of France’s Patriots party, who called the images a“worrying moral decay”. Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Spokesperson Maria Zakharova echoed this assessment, declaring that European unity lies “in the legalization of drugs, impunity, and the immorality of political regimes”.
Ceasefire Negotiations: Russian officials portrayed the Kremlin as a peacemaker in the upcoming ceasefire negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul. Leonid Slutsky, State Duma deputy for international affairs, called the renewal of negotiations “a real measure aimed at achieving peace”. Sergei Ryabkov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, declared that Russia was ready to negotiate “responsibly”, but doubted “the negotiability of the other side”. RT’s Going Underground mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s refusal to meet with anyone but Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggesting he was not in a position to make ultimatums given the situation on the battlefield. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized that negotiations in Istanbul would take place “at the appropriate level” and Putin would announce representatives “as soon as he deemed it necessary”.

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

Xi in Moscow: PRC state media covered every moment of PRC leader Xi Jinping’s trip to Moscow for the Victory Day Parade, from the fighter jet escort Xi’s plane received, to the grandiose welcoming ceremony. CGTN announced the signing of several cooperation documents, while another PRC state-run outlet touted “confident, stable and resilient” relations between both countries and insisted on their “special responsibility as major countries”. Xinhua and CCTV amplified images of several Chinese battalions participating in the parade. The anniversary was also a moment of authoritarian networking, with Xi meeting Venezuelan leader Nicolàs Maduro on the margins of the event and Putin embracing North Korean military officials after the parade.
Pakistan Wins: PRC messaging relayed Pakistan’s accusations of “Indian provocations” and of “cowardly” strikes, while describing India’s targets in Pakistan as “what [the Indian army] termed “terrorist camps”. The MFA called for calm and restraint and offered Beijing’s helping hand to ease tensions. PRC messaging also advertised Indian losses, with PRC diplomatic and state media accounts including the Consul General in Belfast, Ireland, the Consul General in Osaka, Japan, and the Global Times praising the performance of the Pakistani Chinese-made J-10 fighter jet after it shot down some of India’s French-made planes. Other outlets focused instead on Chinese-made JF-17 jets destroying a Russian-made S-400 air defense system.

News and Commentary

South African “influencers for hire” target Zelenskyy ahead of Victory Day: Forty-six South African X accounts—including 29 whose bios identified them as belonging to “influencers”—participated in an apparent coordinated influence-for-hire campaign that attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for declining a three-day Victory Day ceasefire proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. The campaign created 850 anti-Zelenskyy posts that drove the topic to X’s trending list in South Africa. Open-Source Intelligence Analyst Larissa Doroshenko tells the Dispatch, “This campaign relied on purposefully coined hashtags, including #ZelenskyyIsWar and #May09Truce, to elevate the topic on X in South Africa, a tactic Russia has been successfully employing for at least a decade. A relatively new twist in this strategy is the co-opting of local influencers to create a semblance of authenticity and to better engage with local users. Notably, the Kremlin has been increasing its informational influence all over Africa, striving to align the continent with its geopolitical interests. In this light, the United States’ step back from its involvement in the region makes Russia’s job easier.”

PRC accused of foreign interference in the Solomon Islands: The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) accused Beijing of foreign interference after the Chinese Embassy in the Solomon Islands reportedly “bullied” a newly appointed minister in the Pacific island country and threatened to withhold development funds unless he resigned from his role in IPAC. Research Analyst Etienne Soula says, “Reports that Beijing pressured a newly appointed Solomon Islands minister are consistent with mounting evidence of PRC efforts to influence political outcomes in the Pacific, especially in the region’s smaller island states. At a time when the United States has dismantled much of its global development infrastructure, the PRC is using foreign aid effectively to suppress dissenting voices, bolster its regional influence, and foster an international environment more conducive to authoritarianism.”

In Case You Missed It

X continues to accept subscription payments from accounts that appear to be affiliated with US-sanctioned entities, including those apparently linked to Hezbollah, Houthi rebels, and militia leaders in Syria and Iraq.
Poland will close Russia’s consulate in Krakow after Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that Russian intelligence was behind a fire that destroyed a Warsaw shopping mall last year.
A bipartisan pair of US senators introduced a bill to ban federal contractors from using the Chinese-made AI model DeepSeek in their work due to data security concerns.
A pro-Kremlin hacking group claimed to have temporarily taken down several UK websites, including those belonging to law enforcement and local governments.
A new database mapping 74 incidents of hybrid threats against Australia over the last decade found that the PRC is the most active foreign state targeting Australia, playing a role in about 70% of reported activity in the dataset.