Why is it important to counter Russian propaganda and fakes?

Russia has launched a cyber attack on dozens of Italian companies and government agencies

The hackers targeted, in particular, Intesa Sanpaolo, Banca Monte dei Paschi, Iccrea Banca, Milan Linate and Malpensa airports, as well as the ports of Taranto and Trieste, Reuters reports: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/alleged-pro-russian-hackers-hit-20-italian-websites-cybersecurity-agency-says-2025-02-17/

In addition, the websites of several ministries, carabinieri, financial police and some transport companies were attacked, ANSA reports.
The Italian National Cybersecurity Agency claims that the pro-russian hacker group NoName057(16) is behind the series of attacks. These cyberattacks did not affect the operation of companies.
Cybersecurity officials linked the attack to a statement by Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who compared modern russia to the Third Reich because of its war of aggression against Ukraine.

International Reporters gathers Kremlin propagandists from different continents 

On a moscow-funded platform, a dozen pseudo-journalists from eight different countries are promoting russia's occupation of Ukraine, military ‘successes’ and praising russia's foreign policy, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said. Among them:- Adrien Bocquet - a Frenchman living in russia who spreads disinformation about the war in Ukraine in the French media;- Andrea Lucidi, a pro-kremlin Italian who demonstrated the russian invasion symbol ‘z’ and was granted ‘asylum’ in russia;- Vanessa Beeley, a British woman who collaborated with russian propagandist RT and supported former Syrian dictator Assad.

RSF also found that in the first nine months of 2024, International Reporters received more than €27,000 from the sanctioned russian organisation Dialogue Regions, as well as direct funding from the russian Ministry of Digitalisation.In addition to the above-mentioned pseudo-journalists, RSF focuses on the co-founders of the resource - victoria smorodina and Christel Neant.

viktoriya smorodina is the editor-in-chief of the International Reporters website and also runs the russian LLC Laboratory of Attention, established in October 2023, whose main activity is to finance this platform.Néan is originally from France, moved from Belgium to occupied Donetsk in 2016, and later became a russian citizen. She created the French-language propaganda website donbass insider. She is currently filming interviews and stories with local residents of the occupied cities in eastern Ukraine.In addition, according to RSF, the kremlin news agency is currently expanding its network in Africa. In 2024, it signed a cooperation agreement with the Cameroonian media group For You Media, headed by politician Serge Matomba.

The Kremlin is trying to influence the upcoming presidential election in Poland

The task of the influence group, which was prepared by russia's Main Intelligence Directorate, is to spread fakes and organise bot farms. This group has already been exposed by Polish intelligence services. This was reported by the head of the Ministry of Digitalisation Krzysztof Gawkowski.

russian intelligence services are using specialised platforms on the darknet to look for Poles willing to spread disinformation for a reward of 3-4 thousand euros.

These attempts have been noticed since the beginning of 2025.He explained that it is about spreading disinformation and recruiting people to create content to destroy the cohesion of the political scene in Poland. "Russia is waging a cyber war with Poland, not a cold war, but a warm one. We are the most attacked country in the European Union", Gawkowski added. The first round of the presidential election in Poland is scheduled for 18 May.

Russia has stepped up its disinformation campaign against Switzerland

After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, russians began to actively promote narratives aimed at undermining confidence in Switzerland's neutrality and discrediting it as an international mediator, the Swiss portal SWI writes (https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/foreign-affairs/how-switzerland-is-caught-up-in-russias-propaganda-machine/88785511). Most often, russians criticise Switzerland for supporting Ukraine, accepting refugees and hosting a peace summit in June 2024. 

In 2024, the russian TV channel "rt" increased its news coverage of Switzerland 10-fold by launching special sections, including ‘The End of Neutrality?’. And the hacker group NoName05716 attacked the websites of the municipalities of Geneva and Vevey and banks in the cantons of Vaud and Zurich.

How does disinformation penetrate Switzerland?- The kremlin's propaganda seeps into Switzerland via France and Germany with the help of Anti-Spiegel and Réseau International, which are often cited by pro-russian Swiss resources such as weltwoche.ch, uncutnews.ch, conversion-news.org;- russians use Telegram, YouTube, TikTok, X, proxy media or fake websites imitating the original ones to spread lies and manipulations;- russian ‘online troll farms’ engage people to create millions of comments or offensive posts on social media to foment conflict or influence public opinion.

The Kremlin's Doppelganger project continues to operate

Between 28 December 2024 and 5 January 2025 alone, Alliance4Europe analysts identified 288 tweets belonging to the russian Doppelganger project. During this period, information criminals spread 24 fake articles in French, German, Ukrainian and Hebrew.According to Alliance4Europe's report, all but one of the articles contain a link to a russian IP address linked to a British legal entity.

It belongs to a citizen of Ukraine. Analysts note that this requires a more detailed investigation.
The information about the incident was shared with the administration of Platform X, reputable media and European governments. However, it can already be stated that despite repeated warnings and instructions on how to track such activities, the Doppelganger operation continues to operate on Elon Musk's platform.
Read more about the Doppelganger international disinformation project here: https://euvsdisinfo.eu/?s=Doppelganger

Europe launches large-scale campaign to block pro-Kremlin Telegram channels

The restrictions apply to media outlets such as "ria novosti", "izvestia" and "rossiyskaya gazeta, as well as federal TV channels: "russia 1", "channel one", "ntv" and "russia today". However, an analysis by Insight News Media has revealed dozens of other russian propaganda channels on Telegram that are not affiliated with official russian media.

These channels continue to operate and spread russian disinformation in different languages.

Content analysis has revealed a wide network of channels spreading kremlin disinformation in English. Among them are specially created pro-russian English-language channels targeting audiences in the EU and the US. The russians use a similar approach to other foreign audiences, including France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In addition, analysts note the active work of the russian Embassy in Bolivia on the Telegram platform. Please pay attention to the information channels on Telegram.

Russia interferes in German elections: Storm-1516 cyber group exposed

The cyber group is linked to the bot farms of the Prigogine and russia's Main Intelligence Directorate. So far, the criminals have created more than 100 fake news sites imitating legitimate media, investigators from the German publication Correctiv have found. They use artificial intelligence and diplomatic fake news technologies to spread disinformation about politicians and socially sensitive topics. For example, that ‘German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck abused a young woman’ and ‘the head of the Bundestag Defence Committee, Markus Faber, is a russian agent’.

Fake news and videos are spread through a network of pro-russian influencers on Telegram, X and other platforms. In addition, in January, the Bluesky platform recorded the activation of 100 German-language accounts associated with Doppelgänger. They spread narratives discrediting Ukraine and the German coalition. According to CeMAS analysts, fake posts blame the Green Party for economic problems and criticise Chancellor Olaf Scholz for supporting Ukraine.

At the same time, hundreds of German-language posts that have appeared over the past month have expressed only affection and support for the far-right AfD party.The posts monitored by CeMAS contained links to fake German news sites or to articles on real sites that confirm their narrative, or simply images. These posts demonstrate typical examples of the russian Doppelgaenger disinformation campaign model.The goal of the campaign:- discrediting German politicians;- influence the outcome of the Bundestag elections;- creating chaos in the information field.More details here.

How DeepSeek spreads disinformation in favour of China

The threats posed by the Chinese AI assistant DeepSeek are so obvious that the chatbot is being banned in different countries. In Italy, the national regulator did this to protect user data. Due to security risks, the chatbot is also prohibited for government agencies in Taiwan. Employees of the Congress, the Pentagon, and the US Navy have been banned from using it. Australia's largest cybersecurity company urged critical organisations to stop using DeepSeek. The UK and Irish authorities are also checking it for security risks.In addition to problems with the security of personal information, DeepSeek has already been caught in Chinese propaganda.

The researchers tested the chatbot's capabilities and found that its answers not only reflect Beijing's view of certain events in the world, but also directly spread disinformation. For example, DeepSeek distorted the words of former US President Jimmy Carter, who allegedly agreed that Taiwan was part of China. This was one of several examples documented by NewsGuard, a company that monitors disinformation on the Internet.

NewsGuard has called DeepSeek a ‘disinformation machine’.South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) has accused the DeepSeek of excessive collection of personal data and using all incoming queries for its own training. Unlike other services with generative AI, DeepSeek's chat history can be shared with other parties, as the app has a function to collect keyboard input patterns, which allows it to identify users and connect with servers of Chinese companies such as volceapplog.com.Obviously, artificial intelligence is becoming a key tool in the spread of disinformation, regardless of who creates it. And we, as conscious citizens, should take this into account when we draw new knowledge from the neural network.

Romanian intelligence has data on Russian interference in the presidential election

Documents on interference in the presidential election are released in Romania. Intelligence suggests that the kremlin is behind the crime, but local analysts point to the contrary.During the election campaign, identical messages were actively spread on social media and influencers were involved. The operation itself was carried out from ‘external locations’ to circumvent restrictions.

According to the BBC, this is stated in the investigation documents released by Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.
Intelligence officers also found that one TikTok account paid $381,000 to users who campaigned for a pro-russian candidate in just one month, starting on 24 October. In addition, data for accessing election websites were stolen from genuine users and published ‘on the platforms of cybercriminals originating from russia.

The trend of official organisations abandoning their accounts on social network X

The City Hall of Paris announced that it was closing its account on X. The farewell post says that the account will be closed as of 20 January, as social media platform X ‘reduces the reach of factual and objective messages, fuelling hate speech and disinformation’. Instead, the city authorities of the French capital announced the transition to the Bluesky social network.

Earlier, on 15 January, the German Ministry of Defence announced its decision to leave the social network X. A few days earlier, the Belgian newspaper De Morgen left Elon Musk's platform. This was announced by the newspaper's editor-in-chief Remy Amcreutz:

"Our publication does not want to be part of a social network where conspiracy theories and racism are spread without any moderation. That's enough. Elon Musk's values are completely opposite to those of a democratic society and De Morgen".
In addition, more than 80 French NGOs have been leaving social network X since 20 January. In an open letter, the signatories note that ‘the lack of moderation and the configuration of algorithms contribute to the spread of hateful content, the spread of conspiracy theories and theories that deny climate change’.

Viktor Orbán continues to manipulate the issue of Russian energy carriers

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called for a review of the European Union's sanctions against russia over energy prices. Similar calls from a number of European politicians at various levels are regularly published by the russian media.In this way, kremlin propaganda tries to convince European communities that refusal from russian energy carriers will primarily affect ordinary Europeans. They will "suffer", "freeze", and "pay more". 

But the truth is that no European country that has refused to cooperate with Gazprom has seen prices rise. The underground storage facilities are full and Europe will get through the next winter without any problems. Only those few countries that did not want to give up russian gas after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine have problems and have additional difficulties with supplies and payments. That is why Orban's calls for a review of sanctions are not viable. 

Russian hackers launch first phishing campaign on WhatsApp

The launch of the campaign through this platform indicates a change in the tactics, methods and procedures of cybercriminals who are trying to avoid detection in this way, Microsoft said in a blog post.The mechanics of phishing are as follows: the attackers initiate electronic communication with the targeted organisations [organisations that support Ukraine in the full-scale war with russia] to attract their attention.

Next, an email with a malicious link is sent from an address purportedly belonging to a US government official.
The email contains a QR code that allegedly directs users to a WhatsApp group with information about ‘the latest non-governmental initiatives to support Ukrainian NGOs’.
After scanning the QR code, which is actually used by WhatsApp to connect the account, the attackers access the messages using existing browser plugins that are designed to export messages from the account to the WhatsApp web version.

Chinese government-linked hackers launch cyberattack on the US Treasury Department

So, China is beginning to use russia's methods against its opponents. So far, there is no confirmation of cooperation between the kremlin and Chinese intelligence services in this area, but it is only a matter of time. The targets of the attackers were the Office of Economic Sanctions, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury.

According to the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/01/01/treasury-hack-china/), Chinese companies are of the greatest interest to China, against which Washington may impose restrictions. In addition, this cyberattack demonstrates China's desire to obtain intelligence on its main competitor in the struggle for global power and influence. It is noted that the documents accessed by the hackers were not classified, and the extent of the damage caused by the cyber intervention is currently being assessed by experts.

The US imposes new sanctions for interference in the electoral process by Iranian and Russian intelligence services

On 2 January, it became known that the United States had imposed sanctions on two groups linked to Iranian and russian intelligence services, namely, large-scale disinformation campaigns against Americans ahead of the 2024 presidential election."The governments of iran and russia have targeted our electoral processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns", said Bradley Smith, the US government's representative for terrorism and financial intelligence.

russia is represented on this list, in particular, by the Centre for Geopolitical Studies, which oversaw the creation, financing and dissemination of disinformation about American candidates, including deepfake videos. According to the investigation, this centre used artificial intelligence to quickly create fake videos and fake news sites, and also ordered American web companies to create pro-russian content.

Tehran is represented by the Cognitive Design Production Centre, which is a subsidiary of the iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard (listed as a foreign terrorist organisation in the United States). This centre has been working since at least 2023 to foment political tension in the United States.US intelligence agencies accuse the iranian government of seeking to encourage protests in the United States by hacking the accounts of current and former high-ranking officials, including members of Donald Trump's team. US officials involved in combating foreign disinformation claim that the number of information attacks by foreign groups during the last election period almost doubled compared to previous elections.

Kremlin increases spending on censorship and suppression of independent journalism

In 2024, the kremlin introduced artificial intelligence-based censorship methods, continued its crackdown on independent journalism, tightened VPN blocking, prevented access to content on international platforms (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook), and decided to invest more than $660 million over five years in digital control infrastructure designed to block russian citizens' access to independent information. This amount is almost 50 times the budget of russian media in exile, according to the latest report by The Fix, which is part of the JX Fund, a fund to support journalists in exile created by RSF in cooperation with the German Rudolf Augstein and Shopflin foundations.

Jeanne Cavellier, Head of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Department at RSF (Reporters Without Borders):"What Russia is building is not just a national censorship machine - it is a laboratory of digital repression that seeks to become a model for other countries. Independent Russian media outlets in exile are the last line of defence against the Kremlin's large-scale propaganda operation. Abandoning them as they face increasingly sophisticated tools of repression risks creating an unprecedented information blackout.

RSF calls on European states to provide financial and logistical support, and on international donors to step up their support, as well as on tech giants to stop caving in to Kremlin pressure and ensure fair access to their platforms".russia leads the world in terms of the number of takedown requests sent to international platforms such as Google (https://surfshark.com/research/study/governments-google-removal-requests) and TikTok, with most of these requests justified on the grounds of ‘national security’. The most frequently censored topics include the number of russian casualties in the war in Ukraine, war crimes of russian soldiers, russian intelligence operations and kremlin disinformation campaigns.

Russia is stepping up its efforts in the information space against Ukraine and its allies

This operation is coordinated at the highest level of the kremlin and is aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian leadership and sowing distrust in the international media. This is stated in an article by the Polish media outlet Nowiny Polskie.The kremlin's main goal is to undermine international support for Ukraine, as well as the credibility of Ukrainian officials among Western partners. 

russia is seeking to make it more difficult to receive military and economic assistance. Propaganda tactics include taking phrases out of context, producing forged documents and photographs, and manipulating publications in foreign media.

A group led by the First Deputy Chief of Staff of the russian Presidential Administration, sergei kiriyenko, is behind these actions. Another likely partner is artemy lebedev's studio, which creates convincing visual and textual propaganda materials that are in line with kremlin narratives.The consequences of this disinformation campaign go beyond Ukraine. Western democracies have been known to take a number of countermeasures in response, including sanctions against disinformation organisers, labelling fake news and refuting propaganda through fact-checking initiatives. Be careful, too.

TikTok is suspected of criminally ignoring fake accounts before the Romanian elections

The social network's CEO is being summoned to the European Parliament to explain the role of the platform in the Romanian presidential election. A Politico article quoting the head of the liberal group Renew Europe, Valerie Haier, states that TikTok's management must prove the platform's transparency and compliance with the Digital Services Act.

According to Keita Kili, coordinator of the Bulgarian-Romanian Digital Media Observatory, the platform had a ‘significant impact’ during the first round of elections, as TikTok's rule banning paid political advertising was ‘largely ineffective’.
It is worth noting that the far-right and pro-russian candidate Kelin Georgescu won the first round of the election. He had no party support and was not among the favourites in opinion polls.

Russia regularly transfers weapons to third countries for acts of aggression

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that about 70 percent of the weapons found in the possession of the Hezbollah terrorist group during Israel's military operation in southern Lebanon were russian-made. According to the markings on some of the samples, the weapons came from Syria. One of the missiles had a label in russian stating that it had been transferred to the Syrian Ministry of Defence. 

As IDF experts found out, some of the russian weapons were manufactured in 2020 and sent to southern Lebanon. Other samples, according to the markings, were produced in the 1980s. putin, when providing weapons to Assad, knew full well that they could fall into the hands of Hezbollah. But this eloquently confirms the kremlin's strategy of increasing chaos in all regions of the world. Earlier, we wrote about an investigation that confirmed russian arms supplies to the Yemeni Houthis, as well as the kremlin's strategic cooperation agreement with North Korea.

Russian cybercriminals target European and American users

The russian-controlled RomCom group, known as Storm-0978, Tropical Scorpius or UNC259, exploited vulnerabilities in Mozilla and Windows products to carry out the hacking attacks.According to cybersecurity researchers from ESET, the criminals' goal was to gain hidden remote access to computers to install malware on them.

ESET also found that the number of potential victims of the RomCom cybercrime campaign between 10 October and 4 November 2024 ranged from one victim to 250 per country.
In 2024, RomCom carried out cyberattacks on government agencies, the defence and energy sectors in Ukraine, the pharmaceutical and insurance sectors in the United States, the legal sector in Germany, and government organisations in Europe.

Russians are training new propagandists in Africa

Russian intelligence services in the Malian capital, Bamako, have organised so-called "journalism schools" for future fake newsmakers, and promised the best of them jobs. According to Le Monde, 60 Malian "journalists" are being trained by the "African Initiative" and "Agence de presse", both controlled by the kremlin's intelligence services.

The article notes that the selection of the ‘students’ was carried out by a Malian journalist and influencer with pro-russian views, Robert Dissa, who had previously visited moscow and the temporarily occupied Mariupol. In addition, the lecture involved the russian Mikhail Pozdnyakov, the head of the French editorial office of "Agence de Presse".

Finland and the USA record large-scale operations of influence on the part of the Kremlin

According to the information of the Minister of the Interior of Finland, Lulu Ranne, cited by Reuters, it is about numerous cases of sabotage, cyberattacks and destabilization that create an atmosphere of uncertainty and doubt in society.The law enforcement agencies of the country established that moscow is involved in:• interference with GPS signals in sea and air transport in Finland;• a cyber attack on the Fortum company, its facilities in Finland and Sweden, as well as the deployment of suspicious persons and drones to the company's facilities;• DDoS attack on the largest bank in the Nordea region;• numerous thefts at water supply facilities.The United States announced that russia was involved in the creation of a fake video of the destruction of ballots for Donald Trump.

In the video, a person is sorting through and tearing up the ballots cast for Trump. Such a fake received millions of views on the X (Twitter) platform and is part of a russian disinformation operation. This is stated in the article of The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/26/russia-disinformation-campaign-pennsylvania-ballotsThe Bucks County (Pennsylvania) Board of Elections has officially called the video a fake, saying the envelope and other materials depicted in the footage are fake.

The kremlin has long been destabilizing the US election process and attacking candidates with deepfakes. The Washington Post wrote that russia lied to Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz. In the fake materials, he is accused of inappropriate communication with students during his work as a teacher and coach many years ago. Millions of people watched a video on the X platform with Matthew Metro pretending to be a Walz student. The real Matthew Metro, who now lives in Hawaii, said another person was speaking on his behalf in the video. He did attend the high school where Walz worked, but he was never his teacher."These Russian activities are part of a broader effort by Moscow to raise baseless questions about the integrity of US elections and to inflame divisiveness among Americans," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Security Agency said in a joint statement. infrastructure (CISA).

Russia is trying to bring Poles and Ukrainians into conflict against the backdrop of a natural disaster

A number of videos of dubious quality and false posts in which Poles allegedly blame Ukrainians for their troubles after the September flood spread online.Main topics:• Ukrainians are looting Polish shops (there were indeed cases of looting in Poland, but the participation of Ukrainians was not confirmed in any of them);

• Poles cannot stay in a hotel, fleeing from a natural disaster, because all the places are occupied by Ukrainians (there is no mention of Ukrainians in the original posts);

• the money collected for the injured Poles will be given to the Ukrainians (in fact, Poland allocated significant financial aid to the affected citizens - only the first tranche is almost €5 million, and the EU allocated another €5 billion to Poland).The Polish Research Institute NASK, which monitors disinformation on the Internet, believes that russia may be behind these fakes. And the Polish military officially accused the kremlin of conducting the IPSO against the background of the flood.

Kremlin cybercriminals are attacking government websites and companies in Belgium

Hackers use DDoS attacks to overload servers with an excessive number of malicious requests, making websites inaccessible to real users.
In particular, the websites of the banking federation Febelfin, the Ministry of Economy, and the port of Antwerp-Zebrugge are not working. The website of the Belgian Cyber ​​Security Center is also unavailable.

According to VRT (https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2024/10/10/hackerscollectief-opnieuw/), the pro-russian hacker group NoName057 is involved in cyberattacks. Hackers claim that their actions are a response to the statement of Defense Minister Lyudivin Dedonder about the intention to purchase three Caesar artillery installations for Ukraine.
Let's add that NoName057 has been carrying out attacks on allied sites since the beginning of the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine.
At the same time, a fairly powerful cyber community is also working on the side of Ukraine, which neutralizes similar hacker groups, as well as institutions involved in the kremlin's armed and informational aggression. You can join here

Russian special services are recruiting Europeans with pro-Russian views to Telegram

The messenger, originating from russia, has become a tool for illegal networks recruiting young men in EU countries for the purpose of murder and sabotage. According to Western security services, the kremlin's special services are involved in these illegal actions.As indicated in the investigation by OCCRP (an international non-governmental investigative journalism organization that covers topics related to organized crime, corruption, etc.), one of these cases was an appeal to the fictional character Valery Ivanov, who was

offered money for sabotage through the "Hello Bot" account - attacks on NATO military facilities or assassinations.

Similar Telegram channels are actively advertised in pro-russian media, including the "grey zone" channel (mercenary media of the Wagner group, russia). This method of recruitment has a low success rate, but is cheap for russia and can create chaos in Western societies, which is one of the main goals of the kremlin. Read the full text of the investigation here: https://www.occrp.org/en/investigation/make-a-molotov-cocktail-how-europeans-are-recruited-through-telegram-to-commit-sabotage-arson-and- murder

Polish special services neutralized a group of cyberspies controlled by Moscow, and Norway is preparing for sabotage

The exposed cyber group is connected to the Belarusian and russian special services, Polish Minister of Digitalization Krzysztof Hawkowski said.
The attackers started their cyberespionage campaign with an attack on the website of the Polish Press Agency (PAP), and their key goal was to infiltrate various Polish institutions, government agencies and state-owned companies that are connected to the security sector to steal information.

The minister also noted that more than 400,000 incidents related to cyber attacks were recorded in just six months.
Meanwhile, in Norway, a change in the threat level of sabotage on critical infrastructure facilities by the russian Federation is recorded.

According to intelligence data, russia has become more prone to sabotage, in particular at oil and gas facilities, than a year ago. As noted by the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SSR), Vice Admiral Nils Andreas Stensens, quoted by Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/norways-spy-chief-sees-russia-more-likely-attempt-sabotage- 2024-09-10/), this intensification is, among other things, related to the kremlin's attempts to stop Western support for Ukraine: "We are observing planned acts of sabotage throughout Europe, which indicates Russia's clear efforts in this direction."

Western investors in Russian majors

The Molfar OSINT agency conducted an investigation into a large russian company in the oil and gas sector. Specialists analyzed about 30 of the largest Russian oil and gas companies ("Rosneft", "Gazprom", "Lukoil" and others). Among their owners and investors were many European and American companies.

Perhaps that is why some in the United States and Europe react so painfully to Ukraine's attacks on russian factories that supply the criminal terrorist army and the kremlin's special services. And, obviously, there are influential forces in the democratic world that are directly interested in the existence of putin's dictatorship, because they have a good percentage of it.
Read the full investigation here (in English): https://molfar.com/en/blog/zahidni-investory-u-rosiiskii-nafti

In the Baltic countries and Poland, 8 sabotage attempts by Russia were recorded

This year, the Estonian Security Service detained 13 people for desecrating several national monuments and vandalizing the cars of the interior minister and a journalist.In Latvia, in February, two men tried to set fire to the Museum of Occupation, and in Lithuania, in May, an IKEA store caught fire. This is reported by VSquare: https://vsquare.org/russia-sabotage-operations-baltics/

Last year in Poland, a group of criminals was convicted of espionage for russia and planning to blow up the railway, which was used to deliver aid to Ukraine.What these cases have in common is that saboteurs are often recruited through the Telegram app.In addition, the special services of the USA and Germany prevented an attempt on the life of Armin Papperger, the general director of the arms concern "Rheinmetall", which was being prepared by the special services of the russian Federation. Here is the CNN post.russia regularly confirms its terrorist nature and recognizes no borders for its own subversive activities.

The Russian Orthodox Church is expanding its sphere of influence

In the confrontation with the West, russia is looking for allies among the countries of the Global South, in particular in Africa. Recently, the russian Orthodox Church (ROC) joined these efforts. On December 29, 2021, the ROC established its own exarchate in Africa, which should cover all African countries. Its activity is already visible in almost 30 African countries.The ROC is primarily a tool of the russian authoritarian regime (in particular, in 2022, the ROC officially blessed its military to kill Ukrainians), and its actions should be viewed in the context of russian policy and the strategic goals of the kremlin.

In Africa, the russian Orthodox Church pursues several goals:● to increase the loyalty of the local population to russia, to the russian language and propaganda;● to strengthen the position of the ROC in its struggle for a dominant role in world Orthodoxy;

● create additional platforms and communication channels to promote the economic interests of the kremlin,
strengthening the activities of russian mercenaries, special services and agents;● to turn African students into advocates of russia in the world.But all this is hidden behind peaceful slogans and colorful manipulations. The Church presents russia as a non-colonial state, a fighter against Western neo-colonialism and a moral defender of liberal values, which are portrayed as contradicting biblical teachings.More details about this at the link: https://euvsdisinfo.eu/the-kremlin-mobilises-the-church-for-war-for-africa/

How does Russia's foreign intelligence service work against Western countries

Journalists The Insider and Der Spiegel jointly conducted an investigation, the result of which were the materials of russia's foreign intelligence service regarding the information war against Western countries. Among other things, the service has the following tasks:• divide the target audience into two parts - rational and emotional. For each of them, throw your stories into the information space;

• divide the target audience into two parts - rational and emotional. For each of them, throw your stories into the information space;
• use existing or specially created radicals in the virtual space to spread ideas, in order to act not on behalf of russia, but incognito;
• appeal not to the mind of the audience, but to the emotions, in order to achieve the goals set before the propaganda machine as soon as possible;
• continue foreign broadcasts by rt ​​and sputnik.