Behind the Curtain: Unveiling Pro-Kremlin Ecosystems in Europe
Maps pro-Kremlin information ecosystems operating across European social media and web infrastructure, detailing coordinated influence and foreign interference tactics.
Executive summary
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ISD Germany and ISD UK conducted a network-analysis and semantic-mapping study of Telegram communities in France, Germany, and Italy between January 2022 and February 2024, examining how pro-Kremlin narratives interact with existing radical and conspiracy-theory communities across these three countries.
The research found that pro-Kremlin messaging had permeated radical and conspiracy communities in all three countries, with key influencers shaping community narratives and overlapping discussion themes emerging across national borders despite differing local political contexts. The mapping showed these ecosystems evolving dynamically over the two-year period, with pro-Kremlin content and framing feeding into and reinforcing pre-existing conspiratorial and radical discourse rather than operating as a separate, isolated influence stream.
The study concludes that Kremlin-aligned influence in Europe extends well beyond official state messaging into grassroots online communities, and that the interconnected, cross-border nature of these networks facilitates the amplification of aligned narratives across multiple European information ecosystems simultaneously.
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