On November 9, 2022, a panel discussion Kremlin War in Europe: Propaganda in the Visegrad countries, Ukraine and Belarus was held in Warsaw, in which IVO president Grigorij Mesežnikov took part. The participants of the event focused on the main direction of the disinformation-propagandist actions of various socio-political actors of Russian influence in Central and Eastern European actors in favor of the current Russian regime, especially in the context of the ongoing aggression of Russia against Ukraine.

Within the project, a collection of analytical papers "New Propaganda and Disinformation Challenges for Visegrad/EaP states in the Changing Environment" was issued. Five case studies included in this report review major Russian propaganda narratives and malign influence channels before the invasion of Ukraine and in the first months of the war. Research findings will allow suggesting more effective ways to counter Russian malign influence, including setting up counter-narratives, developing more efficient policies, and working on enhancing society's resilience to disinformation. Sharing experiences and expertise, and cooperation at the regional level appears to be a much needed response to common security threats.
 
 
 
Download: New Propaganda and Disinformation Challenges for Visegrad/EaP states in the Changing Environment

 
Today, the activities of agents of Russian influence in Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are mainly aimed at justifying the Russian war and weakening the fighting Ukraine, but they also have a more far-reaching intention – to disrupt the unity of the EU and NATO member states and to disconnect the Central European states from their Western allies. In Belarus, it is mostly an attempts by the Lukashenka regime to use Russian propaganda to strengthen its positions in power. 



The discussion was organized by the analytical association iSANS together with the Prospect Foundation as part of the project “New propaganda and disinformation challenges of V4/EaP states in the changing environment", in which, in addition to iSANS, the Institute for Public Affairs (Bratislava), the magazine Visegrad Insight and the Res Publica Foundation (Warsaw), Prague Security Studies Institute (Prague) and European Expert Association (Kyiv) participated. The project was supported by the International Visegrad Fund. 

The program of the panel discussion.