Moscow also interfered in recent elections in Moldova, Georgia and Romania, and the authorities in Berlin fear that the German parliamentary elections, which are expected on February 23, will also become a target for pro-Russian propaganda.
Media in Germany have identified Kremlin-linked efforts to support the right-wing Eurosceptic party Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the pro-Russian left-wing extremist party Zara Wagneknecht Union (BSW).
The German Ministry of the Interior has created a task force to take the necessary protective measures against disinformation, sabotage, espionage and cyber-attacks during pre-elections and during the election period.
“Purposeful lies and smears are part of the [Krievijas diktatora Vladimira] The range of tools of Putin’s propaganda apparatus,” Minister of the Interior Nancy Feser told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
While Germany and its NATO allies strongly support Ukraine in its fight against Russian encroachment, the head of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND), Bruno Kahl, has warned that “whether we like it or not, we are in direct confrontation with Moscow.”
In October, Kahl said that so far in Germany, “fortunately, there has been no manipulation of the voting procedure itself, such as attempts to influence the counting of votes.” He added that it would be difficult to do such a thing in Germany. However, Kahl pointed out that Moscow has become adept at identifying divisive issues and then stoking them, citing the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and Germany’s economic problems as examples.
Without mentioning specific names, Kahl pointed out that in this way extremes are strengthened and it can be seen that Moscow’s propaganda is sometimes naively repeated among both the left and the right.
Several German media, including Sueddeutsche Zeitung and broadcasters NDR and WDR, conducted a joint investigation this year that concluded that the Russian state-funded company Social Design Agency (SDA) online, including on social networks such as Facebook, “Instagram”, “X” and “Telegram” actively spread memes and narratives with the aim of popularizing the AfD and reducing support for Ukraine. This campaign was controlled directly from the Kremlin.
One of the moves was to spread the narrative that German support for Ukraine was to blame for “the deepest economic and social crisis in recent history.”
“Sueddeutsche Zeitung” quotes Thomas Haldenwang, president of Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), as saying that the BfV is working hard to “identify destructive actors and prevent them from destabilizing our democracy.”
The SDA is also suspected of involvement in the so-called “Doppelgaenger” campaign, which spreads fake articles that mimic the style and layout of major German news services but spread pro-Russian views.
Allegations aimed at undermining confidence in the voting process itself have also spread in Germany. During the European Parliament (EP) elections in June, AFP investigated the widespread claim that a small hole in the corner of the ballot papers made them invalid. In fact, the hole is designed to help blind people vote using a special stencil.
Many of the suspicious posts on social media focused on the climate change debate and targeted Germany’s Green Party, which is also AfD’s political opponent. While much of the disinformation on the subject is domestic, the non-profit group Climate Action Against Disinformation said official Russian media accounts, including those published in German, are trying to heighten tensions.
Leading green politicians have been smeared with defamatory articles and artificial intelligence manipulated videos, falsely accusing them of scandals and crimes. German news site t-online reports that the claims were spread through various YouTube videos, sponsored articles in foreign media and fake German news sites. Links from these disinformation portals were then distributed by pro-Kremlin accounts on the “X” platform, using a process of “information laundering” that German media have described as a modern version of Cold War-era KGB practices.
Green lawmaker and security expert Konstantin von Notz warned last week that the use of artificial intelligence-generated disinformation has long been a serious security policy problem.