EUvsDisinfo: The shadowy SVR openly pushes disinformation narratives
On September 28, President Maia Sandu and the pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) achieved a convincing victory in Moldova's parliamentary elections. PAS won over 50% of the vote, giving it control of parliament – thus, the party provides Moldova with a solid pro-European orientation. The victory was achieved despite a massive pro-Russian information manipulation campaign against Sandu and PAS.
The Kremlin has conducted many similar campaigns in the past to undermine elections in other countries and influence their outcome, while blaming Western countries for the same actions. The Kremlin usually builds the narrative and relies on state media and a large network of semi-official or covert media to spread it. Recently, an unexpected source of pro-Russian narratives has emerged: the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence service.
Normally, intelligence agencies operate quietly and out of the spotlight. But recently, the SVR has done something unusual: it has begun issuing official statements. These press releases serve primarily to disseminate the completely false claims that the SVR hopes to instill in people's minds through covert campaigns to influence public opinion. The SVR has recently made public statements in three different countries. Let's take a closer look at them.
Moldova is resisting the disinformation attack
The Kremlin has gone to great lengths to influence the Moldovan elections. For example, an investigation revealed that activists affiliated with a pro-Russian party were trained on a daily basis to wage “information warfare“ by spreading disinformation that divides society. The Kremlin's disinformation warfare machine has spread many misleading narratives. Among them were suggestions that the EU wanted to use Moldovans to fight against Russia, that the EU would impose foreign values on Moldovan society, and that Sandu herself had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in the past. Such narratives are common in Russia’s campaigns of information manipulation and foreign interference against Moldova. But this time, the SVR got in on the act. Its assigned role was to lend credibility to the disinformation. In an official statement, the intelligence agency accused the EU of planning to use NATO forces to occupy Moldova after the elections. The accusations were quite specific: NATO troops were allegedly already in Romania, near the Moldovan border, and their plan was to carry out a military landing near Odessa. These accusations are, of course, baseless – elections were held and no such landing followed.
Discrediting the protests in Serbia
Earlier that month, the SVR released a statement that the EU was planning a Serbian “Maidan“. This is the latest version of the persistent disinformation narrative that the EU is responsible for organizing color revolutions in countries whose governments it does not like. In fact, the ongoing protests in Serbia, which erupted in mid-December 2024, have almost nothing to do with the EU. They began after a canopy collapsed at the Novi Sad train station, killing 16 people. Protesters blame corruption and a lack of accountability and transparency at the government level for the incident.
Georgian NGOs under fire
Last year, the SVR ran a coordinated campaign claiming that Georgia's Western partners were trying to stage another color revolution, this time in Tbilisi. On August 26, 2024, the SVR released a statement alleging that the United States was plotting a coup before Georgia's parliamentary elections in October. And again, the alleged coup never took place.
The European Union has also been the target of similar accusations. Earlier this year, the SVR claimed that the EU was funding student protests in the country. In doing so, the SVR castigated the non-governmental organization Georgian Youth for Europe“ – it was insinuated that the EU Delegation in Tbilisi is giving away 50,000 euros for “progressive“ projects that require “loyalty to the West“.
The SVR may be a secret organization, but its false claims are obvious. Let us not be fooled.
Other topics in this week's EuvsDisinfo roundup:
- Following the recent incidents in the airspace of NATO member states, the pro-Kremlin information network has spread the thesis that Western countries are inventing a pretext for a direct confrontation with Russia. After the violation of Polish airspace by drones on September 9 and 10, the Russian authorities denied any connection to the incidents. However, they were used as fuel for another disinformation narrative – that Ukraine will stage a false flag attack on NATO bases in Poland and Romania with refurbished Geran drones. The aim here is to portray Ukraine as an aggressive and warmongering country trying to drag NATO into a war with Russia. Ironically, the false claim backfired on its own authors, revealing that Russian drones had penetrated Polish airspace.
- Another well-known pro-Kremlin propaganda plot presents the protests in Georgia and elsewhere as a harbinger of an impending Western-sponsored color revolution. Russian manipulative media outlets claim that Britain is plotting a revolution in Georgia during the upcoming local elections there. The alleged plan involved the participation of Georgian activists trained in Lithuania. There is no evidence for this claim.
- Finally, several media outlets have published articles stating that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is completely safe under Russian control. The self-confident tone is enough to raise concerns. The plant recently suffered a complete loss of external power – for the tenth time since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022. The only remaining power line supplying electricity to the plant was recently damaged, and the International Atomic Energy Agency team assigned to the ZNPP has not yet been able to visit the power line to inspect it. The ZNPP currently relies on emergency diesel generators to cool its six shut-down reactors and perform other critical safety maintenance. When the Kremlin says not to worry, it’s usually a good idea to worry – at least a little.
EUvsDisinfo/ translation: Representation of the European Commission in Bulgaria