EU East StratCom Task Force
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The EU’s East StratCom Task Force was set up by EU High Representative Federica Mogherini in 2015, in response to a request from all 28 EU Heads of Government to “address Russia’s ongoing disinformation campaigns”. It is a team of eleven communications and Russian language experts, who also seek to improve communication on EU policies towards the Eastern Neighbourhood and to strengthen media plurality in the region, especially in the Russian language.
The Task Force’s flagship products are its weekly Disinformation Review of pro-Kremlin disinformation stories and its social media accounts @EUvsDisinfo and EU vs Disinformation.
A year of Russian propaganda: 1310 cases of Russian fakes debunked by EU watchdog
During the year we have witnessed plenty of spectacular claims from pro-Kremlin mouthpieces, such as the imminent threat of…
Breaking the rules: Crimea, disinformation, doping
On December 2, the news broke that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to sanction Russia’s participation in the 2018…
Czechoslovakia should be grateful to the USSR for 1968, Russian propaganda says
Taken down after Czech protests The independent Russian outlet Meduza’s research into the editing history on Zvezda’s website shows that after…
Revisionism, misinterpreted facts, video game image as evidence – this week’s pro-Kremlin disinformation tactics
This week we saw plenty of historical re-inventions in pro-Kremlin outlets. For example, the staggering number of victims of communist…
Seven things you should know about pro-Kremlin disinformation
1) Pro-Kremlin disinformation can look like just another news story Claims made in pro-Kremlin fake news stories are…
Russian TV is not about Russia: Ukraine, US, EU get six times more attention in last week’s most watched shows
This is a weekly summary of the main topics on Russia’s most-watched TV news channels. The news shows’…
Top Russian state TV propagandists pick up this year’s Russian “Emmy Awards”
The Russian independent outlet The Insider was the first to present highlights from the TEFI winners’ back catalog of fake news stories.…
Political censorship in Russian comedy shows
The whistleblower The fact that certain issues are not supposed to be made fun of on Russian state…
The main disinformation target of the last week: Ukraine’s proposal for the UN peacekeeping mission
The pro-Kremlin pulp mill The first target of the disinformation stream was Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s proposal for peacekeepers…
Beware – This Film Was Made by the West to Destabilise Russia!
Most recently, we learned that comedy movies can be a “planned provocation” and part of a western plot…
Corruption and disinformation: Backstage at Russian TV
In the course of the summer, new stories have emerged from inside pro-Kremlin media with testimonies from whistle-blowers…
Russia’s TV news: threatening Ukraine with nukes, claiming USSR only real democracy, defensive Zapad 2017
“USSR was the only country of real democracy” TV host Vladimir Solovyov, 17.9.2017 1. Threatening Ukraine with nuclear…
Latest disinformation narratives: Get ready for pro-Kremlin tinnitus
A recent target of this disinformation method has been The European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats…
Three things you should know about RT and Sputnik
1. They are not independent Sputnik was created by a Presidential decree with the aim to “report on the state…
Denmark and Sweden to cooperate on combating Russian fake news
Denmark and Sweden will cooperate in the field of hybrid threats, and there will be a strong focus…
Initiatives to counter disinformation spring up in the Russian language
Prominent Russian sociologist and dissident Igor Eidman has started a new Facebook group to “counter Kremlin propaganda” in…
Conspiracy: The US creates bioweapons in 400 countries (there are only 195)
As we have pointed out on many occasions, the pro-Kremlin outlets love conspiracies. And the more shocking these…
“Russia’s bunker busters will reach Finns underground” – how to ridicule and threaten at once
The story explains that while Russia is planning its biggest military exercise in years, Finland is going underground…
Children’s toy part of conspiracy against the Kremlin
Yes, you read that right. In a news broadcast aired by Russian state TV Rossiya-24, the audience was told…
The Nazi-obsession of pro-Kremlin propagandists
The trigger was a NATO video about the so-called “Forest Brothers” – irregular units in the three…