Russia has for years sought to influence public opinion around the world “to legitimise its crimes, such as the war against Ukraine, and murky arrangements, such as the Nord Stream 2 Russia-to-Germany gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea,” Poland’s tvp.info website said in a report published on Monday.
Citing Germany’s Bild newspaper, it claimed that Germany has provided “an especially fertile ground” for the Kremlin’s propaganda.
This has been the case for several reasons, such as the history of friendly relations between Germany and Russia, the legacy of communist dictatorship in eastern Germany and the considerable number of Russian-speaking people living in western Germany, according to tvp.info.
The Polish website said that since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year, the Kremlin’s propaganda has focused on the war, with pro-Russian views “spread cunningly" through many different channels.
“Among those who have fallen for Russian propaganda, are both German-speaking and Russian-speaking residents of Germany,” tvp.info wrote, citing Bild.
'Five pillars' of Russian propaganda in Germany
According to experts from the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), an NGO combating disinformation, the Kremlin’s propaganda efforts in Germany rest on "five pillars," tvp.info reported.
It said the first is made up by Russian state media, including RT and SNA, the German branch of the Sputnik news agency.
SNA, for instance, recently reported extensively on a speech by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who referred to Germany’s “Nazi past” and accused Berlin of “supporting neo-Nazis” by providing military aid to Ukraine, according to tvp.info.
Second, Russian propaganda is disseminated by social media influencers, “often with links to Germany."
Another pillar of Russian propaganda is VADAR, a Russian-German NGO that “ostensibly caters for the interests” of Russian Germans and Russian-speaking citizens of Germany, tvp.info said.
VADAR’s account on the Telegram social messaging app is full of anti-Ukrainian content and supports Russia’s invasion, it added.
Russian propaganda is also disseminated on social media by the Russian embassy in Germany, similarly to the Kremlin’s diplomatic outposts in other countries, tvp.info reported.
Moreover, “the Kremlin’s lies are spread around Germany by extremist groups and media,” some of which “have links with the Russian government or Russian state media,” tvp.info reported, citing the Centre for Information Resilience.
These extremist groups include the right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has disseminated the Kremlin’s statements about the Nord Stream explosions, and “the US-based extreme-left World Socialist Web Site (WSWS),” which features “an extensive German-language-version spreading Russian propaganda,” tvp.info said.
Tuesday is day 412 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: tvp.info, money.pl, bild.de