EUvsDisinfo: Summoning the ghost of the Reich
Russian state television and other Kremlin-friendly media outlets persistently push the thesis that Germany is on war alert – they deliberately distort Germany's defense policy and suggest that the country intends to go on the offensive.
This disinformation campaign seeks to create the impression that Germany is shifting its priorities from commemorating war losses to military reconstruction - i.e. "from commemoration to rearmament". The campaign suggests that the desire to create the "strongest conventional army in Europe" invalidates post-war Germany's commitment to the defense ideal of "never again".
Demonizing the German top leadership
This broad theme of a "warlike Germany" has grown stronger, moving from more general accusations in a historical context to direct, personal demonization of German leaders.
These attacks are not subtle. Proponents on “Russia 1“ - a state-controlled TV channel that is under EU sanctions - have accused Germany and its leadership, led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, of seeking “revenge for the defeat of the Third Reich“. Other propaganda programs such as “Formula of Meaning“ on “Vesti FM“, went even further: they called Merz “a descendant of the Nazis“. This crude labeling escalates to the level of direct and personal attacks. The campaign presents modern German leaders not as political colleagues, but as the literal embodiment of historical evil. So far, EUvsDisinfo has registeredmore than 25 cases of disinformation directed at Chancellor Merz, originating from the Kremlin.
Awakening old traumas through military images
To stoke fear, Kremlin propagandists have developed scenarios in which “Merz's Germany seeks direct intervention in the war“ – it is suggested that soldiers in German uniforms will soon be in Ukraine and will operate sophisticated weapons systems. This is a baseless fabrication designed to present Germany as an aggressor who “is replacing the Americans as a strategic sponsor“ of the war against Russia.
So, the Russian propaganda media claim that Germany is turning “from commemoration to rearmament“ and that Chancellor Merz is pushing “liberal-Nazi“ Europe towards war. In doing so, they are deliberately activating deep psychological traumas ingrained in generations of Russians.
The Russian public is being fed the idea that history is repeating itself, only this time Russia will not wait to be “attacked”. This narrative aims to turn Russia's ongoing aggressive war against Ukraine into a defensive battle. The aim is to make the huge number of Russian victims seem not only justified, but also necessary.
Blessings from above
The saturation of the information space with anti-German messages received a kind of official approval on July 14: then the Kremlin's chief propagandist Dmitry Peskov called Germany “dangerous again“. His comment deliberately distorted the defensive words of German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. Peskov's comment served as an official endorsement by the Kremlin of the very narrative created by the Russian propaganda machine.
Peskov portrayed Germany's defensive readiness as some kind of proactive threat. He deliberately missed the key context in which Pistorius was speaking - namely: a hypothetical scenario of defending NATO from attack. By declaring that Germany was “dangerous again”, Peskov deliberately evoked historical parallels with Nazi Germany: a common tactic in pro-Kremlin disinformation to portray today's Germany as aggressive and unreliable.
Exploiting trauma
There is a coordinated correspondence between the messages in the state-controlled and Kremlin-friendly media and Moscow’s official discourse. This suggests that we have a well-calculated, top-down disinformation strategy. Its purpose is to provide a distorted historical justification for the imperialist Russian war against Ukraine.
When Russian forces bomb Ukrainian hospitals and attack civilian infrastructure, the narrative of a “resurgent Nazi Germany” provides Russian citizens with a kind of psychological cover – that war crimes are not actually being committed against fascists, but only “fair justice” is being meted out.
However, the goals of this disinformation campaign extend far beyond Russia’s borders. In Germany itself, these pro-Kremlin narratives exploit post-war sensitivities to militarism. The aim is to sow disillusionment over defense spending and undermine public support for Ukraine. Internationally, the campaign seeks to poison perceptions of the German leadership, weaken transatlantic unity, and delegitimize the entire European security architecture.
Finally – the Kremlin is weaponizing history and the trauma it carries. This serves an obvious dual purpose: to justify atrocities, war crimes, and losses to its domestic audience, while simultaneously sowing doubts abroad about whether defending Ukraine is worth the risk of a “militarization” of Germany.
Let’s not be fooled.
Other topics in this week’s EuvsDisinfo roundup:
- Kremlin mouthpiece “Sputnik“ took aim at the authority of the UN and baselessly accused Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his team of routinely spreading “lies fabricated by the Kiev regime“ to discredit Russia. This false narrative emerged as a direct reaction to Guterres' condemnation of Russia's airstrike on Ukrainian civilian targets on July 3 – an attack that hit residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in Kiev and other cities. The case is a textbook example of the Kremlin's strategy: when international institutions document and expose Russia's violations, Moscow calls for “objectivity“ and “impartial investigations“ and evades responsibility. This tactic serves to undermine trust in intergovernmental institutions and individuals who denounce Russia's violations of international law.
- Russian propaganda claims that NATO is organizing "false flag" operations to accuse Russia of using chemical weapons in Ukraine. This conspiracy theory emerged as a direct reaction to credible intelligence reports from late June by German and Dutch agencies indicating Russia's increasing use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine. Ukraine has documented 888 cases of munitions containing dangerous chemical compounds in May 2025 alone, while the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed the presence of the toxic chemical C2 on the front line – substantial evidence of violations by Russia. The timing of this disinformation illustrates another classic Kremlin tactic: when there is evidence of wrongdoing against you, immediately come up with counter-accusations without any evidence to cloud the picture and escape responsibility.
- The Polish edition of the network “Pravda“ is once again recycling prophecies of collapse – that the EU is “coming to its end&rdash; due to failures in migration policy. This apocalyptic narrative deliberately ignores the fact that the EU is actively solving migration-related problems through concrete measures – for example, the EU-Turkey Refugee Agreement, joint NATO naval operations to combat human trafficking, and mechanisms for the relocation of asylum seekers between member states. These narratives repeatedly reflect the Kremlin's persistent and unrealistic fantasy of the "collapse of the EU". It exaggerates the internal divisions in the EU and turns a blind eye to the sustainability of the Union and to the ongoing reforms in policies for effective management of migration challenges.
EUvsDisinfo/ translation: Representation of the European Commission in Bulgaria