Securing Democracy Dispatch

Foreign malign actors, in particular Russia and China, are employing a wide variety of tactics to undermine the integrity of Czechia’s October parliamentary election, including amplifying divisive narratives, deploying AI-generated content, and mobilizing online communities towards offline action, according to a report by the FIMI Defenders For Election Integrity (FDEI) consortium, of which ASD is a part.  

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

• Zapad 2025: Russian officials and state media celebrated the success of joint Belarusian-Russian military drills known as Zapad 2025. TASS reported that the goal of the Zapad 2025 drills was to practice defending the Union State of Russia and Belarus against any potential aggression. According to the Belarusian Ministry of Defense, the militaries practiced planning the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons and deploying the Oreshnik missile system that is scheduled to arrive in Belarus within this year. TASS emphasized the attendance of foreign observers from 23 countries, including the United States, whose attendance was attributed to “the thawing of relations” between Belarus and Western countries. Conversely, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Poland’s decision to close its border with Belarus before the Zapad 2025 drills “an emotional overload”. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova labeled the closure “confrontational” and a “further escalation in the heart of Europe”. She also bemoaned damage to Poland’s national economy and Poles’ freedom of movement.
• US Sanctions: Russian propaganda outlets speculated on the likelihood of new US sanctions on Russia and the potential easing of US sanctions on Belarus. Russian television propagandist Vladimir Solovyev accused US Senator Lindsey Graham of precipitating “European economic ruins” by calling on the EU and NATO to support [US President Donald] Trump’s proposal to sanction India and China for continuing to trade with Russia. TASS, however, quoted US Secretary of State Marco Rubio who said that he was hopeful “the situation in Ukraine would not lead to the imposition of sanctions against Russia”. Solovyev further noted that Trump’s “tough sanctions against Russia” would not be implemented because NATO countries would not be able to stop buying Russian oil. Discussing the possibility of easing US sanctions on Belarus, invited experts on Moscow 24 suggested that this step might “move Belarus away from Russia towards the camp of America”, though he predicted that this “rapprochement” was purely symbolic and would not lead to tangible changes.

The PRC’s diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week:

• Charlie Kirk assassination: Last week, PRC state media outlets covered the “distressing content” and fallout of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Phoenix TV relayed US President Donald Trump’s statement deploring a “dark moment for America” and blaming the “radical left” for the murder. A few days later, the same outlet also mockingly shared a video of Trump answering a question about Kirk’s death by talking about the White House’s new ballroom. The Global Times pushed back against US accusations that Russian and Chinese bots were spreading disinformation online to “encourage violence”. PRC state media also used the incident to denigrate the entire US system, highlighting disorder in Congress and warning of a “vicious spiral in political violence”. In particular, CGTN America amplified US experts opining on “a climate of violence in America”, gun violence, and “a very disturbing level of otherizing in this country”.
• Trade negotiations in Madrid: PRC messaging devoted significant attention to the trade negotiations between Beijing and Washington that took place in Madrid last Sunday and Monday. PRC state media quoted US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent before and after the Monday session about the notional deal reached on TikTok, the social media company owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. The PRC Embassy in the United States and several state media outlets relayed a press conference given by the PRC delegation in Madrid, in which they stressed Beijing’s opposition to the “weaponization of technology” and asserted their country’s support for Chinese companies. The many posts about the negotiations contained little detail on what was actually agreed, with state media outlets falling back on the importance of dialogue, the “positive signals” sent by the talks, and vox pop interviews in support of world peace. 

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

• Charlie Kirk assassination: Iranian outlets amplified claims—made by some in the United States—that Charlie Kirk may have been killed by “pro-Israeli forces” because he had allegedly become resentful of the “Israel lobby”. This claim was further boosted by Fars News, who shared a video of Tucker Carlson claiming that Kirk had told him that he believed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu was a “destructive force”. A Press TV pundit also shared a post questioning “who killed Charlie Kirk?” while linking to a video showing Kirk complaining about how some Zionists had questioned his “moral character”. Those assertions were contradicted by other Iranian posts that blasted Kirk for his pro-Israel views, including one that called Kirk a “loyal propagandist who was notorious for denying Gaza genocide, vilifying Iran, erasing Palestinians, and amplifying Zionist extremism in American politics”. 
• Israeli Strikes on Qatar: Iranian state messengers continued to denounce Israel’s strikes against Qatar. Iranian officials and state media dedicated significant coverage to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s participation in the Arab-Islamic Emergency Summit in Doha, amplifying his remarks calling the strikes in Doha “pure terrorism” and his warnings that no Muslim country is safe from Israel’s acts of aggression. Iranian state media stressed that the United States gave Israel the “green light” for the attack, despite White House assertions that it did not. Press TV insisted that Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu threatened further attacks on Qatar and amplified the Pakistani Defense Minister’s calls for Muslim countries to form an “Islamic NATO”. Tasmin News’ Hebrew outlet mocked Israel for its failed assassination attempt, posting a cartoon of an Israeli pilot flying over the Persian Gulf with the caption “Is Qatar on the right or the left?” Some outlets leveraged the event to criticize the Qatari government’s “cozy relationship” with Washington, claiming the attack was the “price of appeasement” for its “imperial servitude” while noting that they hope it will help Doha open its eyes to reality. 

Russian influence campaigns spread false claims about Charlie Kirk’s murder: Russian influence actors have seized on the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk to inflame US division—using bot networks, fabricated news reports, and fake celebrity quotes to amplify concerns and calls for civil war—and spread false claims about the Ukrainian government’s complicity. Open-Source Research Analyst Larissa Doroshenko tells the Dispatch, “As we highlighted in our last week’s newsletter, Russian propaganda outlets immediately seized an opportunity to trace a ‘Ukrainian hand’ in Kirk’s assassination. This week, we also see an amplification of anti-left messaging, but also coordination with Chinese and Iranian operatives in blaming Israel for the murder. All these narratives not only exacerbate divisions within targeted countries but also undermine US relationships with its allies, such as Israel and the EU, which certainly benefits our adversaries.”

In Case You Missed It

• A pro-Kremlin influence campaign is circulating a forged map of Ukraine as evidence to falsely claim that France, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Romania are plotting to divide the country between them in the event of a peace deal with Russia.  
• A North Korean state-sponsored hacking group used ChatGPT to forge a military ID document in a phishing attack on South Korean journalists, researchers, and human rights activists. 
• A television channel run by Russia’s Ministry of Defense is airing a new satire program it boasts is completely AI-generated, which features an avatar host and clips generated by AI aimed at mocking current events and world leaders. 
• X’s AI platform Grok falsely suggested that London metropolitan police spread false information about an anti-immigration rally on Saturday and involved clashes between demonstrators and the police, passing off footage from 2020 as being from last weekend’s protests. 
• The US spin-off of TikTok to be sold to American investors in a deal orchestrated by President Donald Trump will continue to use parent company ByteDance’s Chinese algorithm but will be trained in the United States on American user data.

Image altered by AI led to false claims about shooter in Charlie Kirk’s death. Research Analyst Krystyna Sikora quoted in PolitiFact

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