According to a recent study, former Soviet nations and Balkan states are mainly targeted by the Kremlin’s disinformation apparatus known as Pravdu.
The Center for Information, Democracy, and Citizenship at the American University located in Bulgaria
reviewed over 640,000 documents
On the network from December 2024 through March 2025.
The study revealed that ex-Soviet and Balkan nations made up 52% of all the published works, even though they represent only a relatively minor portion of the total population in the examined countries.
Specifically, the leading three nations most heavily subjected to Pravda disinformation are Moldova, Latvia, and Estonia, with Serbia and Armenia ranking among the top five.
Lithuania, Georgia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic complete the top 10 list.
According to the research, the closeness of these nations and statistical evidence indicate that there is a complex operation aimed at disseminating misinformation in areas that hold significant strategic importance for the Kremlin.
“The six leading countries most frequently targeted house crucial energy facilities linking European markets to Russian resources, suggesting a possible strategic focus on areas significant for energy security,” the report stated.
The targeting approach of Pravda matches recorded tactics of employing information to expand influence in areas deemed strategically important,” it went on. “The methodical dissemination indicates a planned operation instead of spontaneous journalistic efforts or natural public engagement.
The Pravda network is a set of websites created for the dissemination of pro-Russia propaganda.
Also known as Portal Combat, the Pravda network activities have been disseminating fake news in different European languages for the past 17 years, with its first ecosystem domains and publications tracked in 2013.
The French Virginium Agency, which oversees digital surveillance and safeguards against global meddling, was the initial organization to spot this network. In a recent publication released in February 2024, they reported uncovering an extensive misinformation initiative across Europe.
Why does Moldova receive such high rankings in relation to Russian disinformation?
A key factor is its geographical location: situated between Ukraine and Romania, it serves as a border dividing Eastern and Western Europe—two distinct zones of influence, as noted in the study.
Another aspect is its political setting: it received EU candidate status in June 2022 and is now addressing various tensions.
among pro-Western and pro-Russian groups
.
This connection is rooted in its past as well: being a previous Soviet republic, Moldova maintains economic, cultural, and historical connections with Moscow but simultaneously aims to strengthen its relationship with the European Union.
What makes Russia focus particularly on Eastern Europe?
Russia intensifies its disinformation efforts particularly towards neighboring nations because of longstanding foreign and domestic policies, as stated by Sophia Freuden, a researcher with the American Sunlight Project—a group dedicated to safeguarding U.S. democracy against disinformation threats.
She stated to EuroVerify that the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the current Russian Federation have all used territorial expansion as a strategy for asserting dominance and purported self-preservation. The same dynamic can be observed in cyberspace: it’s not accidental that Ukraine was frequently targeted with misinformation campaigns by Russia well before the events of Euromaidan and the conflict in Donbas erupted.
She pointed out that the Balkans present an “intriguing scenario” since Moscow has not traditionally viewed these nations as being within the sphere of “Russian influence.”
Rather, the Balkans serve as both a historic ‘zone of influence’ for Russia—relying significantly on the principles of offensive realism to support this claim—and practically speaking, they see the Balkans as a gateway into Europe,” Freuden stated. “Given that numerous Balkan nations are either part of the EU and/or NATO, or aspire to join, such as Serbia, these countries now function as strategic conduits for inserting Russian disinformation within an informational landscape that is becoming progressively insulated against and antagonistic toward Russian cyber intrusions.
“This holds even truer as the EU moves to prohibit operations of entities such as RT within Europe,” she noted.
What kinds of misinformation stories circulate in these nations?
Similar to numerous regions globally, the misinformation stories propagated by Russian supporters often center around the conflict in Ukraine, as well as the roles of the U.S. and NATO.
“The primary objective of Russian disinformation operations since the war began is to sell the false narrative that Russia was somehow forced into invading Ukraine because Ukraine had become a puppet of the United States and NATO,” Freuden said. “They try to sell this narrative all over the world, both in and outside the West, as a means of justifying their war.”
She mentioned that she had examined how Russian misinformation targeted the Balkan region, blending it with anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and falsehoods. This trend became particularly pronounced at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, as Russia aimed to endorse its own vaccine and undermine Western attempts to manage the virus.
Russia also often amplifies secessionist or extreme right-wing, ethnically nationalist messages in Eastern and Southeastern Europe.
The main rationale behind this is to fragment the European populace and ignite xenophobia along with anti-EU sentiments,” Freuden stated. “A fractured Europe is significantly simpler to dominate compared to a cohesive one.
How might Eastern European countries combat Russian misinformation?
According to Freuden, countries ought to adopt a comprehensive societal strategy to tackle disinformation.
Educating both children and adults about information literacy—including media, digital, and AI literacy—is essential,” she stated. “Communities will become resilient against Russian misinformation solely through learning how to recognize and steer clear of it.
She mentioned that governments ought to support both their own agencies and civil society organizations to oversee and counteract foreign disinformation.
Following the demise of USAID, numerous initiatives aimed at combating disinformation are shutting down globally,” Freuden stated to EuroVerify. “Such closures benefit antidemocratic entities like Russia and China, enabling them to pursue their authoritarian international policies among susceptible communities.
