Russia is behind it all: How does foreign propaganda work in Serbia?

 

Russian influence through Russian state media

The anatomy of Russian influence in our information and media space is very complex. A good example of how the media are an ideal tool to be manipulated for propaganda purposes by third countries is the Russian state media, which continue to operate in Serbia despite recommendations from the European Union to introduce sanctions against Russia and apply them to the media and information space of our country. Russian state media, which are therefore directly financed by the Russian government under whose control they are, continue to spread a campaign that serves the interests of the Kremlin, but also through their unhindered work in the territory of our country, have a great influence on public opinion in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or the Republic of Srpska and Montenegro, since from here disinformation campaigns spill over to this area, and everything takes on a regional character, writes Demostat.

The very existence of the Russian state television Russia Today (Russia Today) in the Serbian language through the RT Balkan portal has long become problematic and questionable, since the European Union has sanctioned the work of this television since March 2022. Given that things have not changed since then, Reporters Without Borders has once again appealed to the European Union to react and hold Serbia accountable.

However, although they continue their work in our country without hindrance, the influence of Russian state media operating on our territory is actually not too great on the Serbian media scene and is certainly incomparably smaller than the pro-Russian propaganda on domestic national frequencies.

 

Russian propaganda in Serbia's backyard: how we pay to be misinformed

Various and creative pro-Russian propaganda campaigns are most dominant, no less, than on Serbian national frequencies. That is, on almost all frequencies that are owned by all citizens of this country, that are financed from the country's budget and that are paid for by the citizens of this country.

The fact that these and almost all other national frequencies are the main channel of (pro)Russian propaganda in our country and, specifically, that almost all national frequencies are misused for the purposes of propaganda of a foreign country represents the specificity of Serbia in relation to all other countries in Europe, with the exception of perhaps only Belarus.

 

National frequencies are immeasurably more efficient in what they do in relation to any Russian state media operating in our region.

We could also observe a fresh and effective example of this in the context of this year's elections in the United States of America and the events on one of the television stations with a national frequency, on which the program of the Russian state television RT is broadcast live with all subtitles in Serbian, which is also commented on in the studio in the so-called prime time between 8 and 10 pm every evening.

If we look ironically at this and similar examples that we can follow on this national frequency every day, it represents such naked pro-Russian propaganda that it is a good question whether in theory it can even be called propaganda per se anymore.

And while on some television stations with national coverage we witness naked pro-Russian propaganda every day, on the public media service of Serbia we can witness something called very sophisticated pro-Russian propaganda.

According to the results of a two-year qualitative monitoring conducted by Demostat, the program of the public media service, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), in its news programs favors Russia in a sophisticated way, without overt propaganda and certainly without hate speech, but with a clear bias.

The news program promotes affirmative reports in favor of Moscow, while RTS journalists only after some time since the beginning of the war in Ukraine began to occasionally use the term aggression and favoritism towards the Russian side in the war in Ukraine is noticeable. To be clear, sophisticated pro-Russian propaganda is not reserved only for the news program. On the contrary – sophisticated pro-Russian propaganda is recognized in the cultural and educational program of the public media service, which is reflected in Russian series, films in prime time on weekends at 9 p.m., as well as through topics related to Russia from the period of World War II.

But that is far from all. A very interesting example is the travelogue show "Fantastic Planet", which in a very sophisticated way depicts the decadence of the world, and interestingly, only the Western part of the world. The bad side of the West is put in the foreground, showing the omnipresent decadence deeply rooted in Western society, which, well, can be encountered and seen at every step as soon as we set foot in the West. However, nowhere is it shown what the bad sides of a country from another part of the world look like.

The German agency for Southeast Europe "dpa" (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) also concludes that the narrative that has been spreading in this way for a long time directly from a foreign center of power has become quite acceptable in our society. Thus, Thomas Brey, the long-time head of this agency, assesses the entire situation as very alarming and dangerous and places it in the context of efforts to discredit the West and bring Serbia closer to Russia.

No less concerned about the situation of foreign Russian influence that is getting out of control is Peter Stano, the European Union's spokesperson for foreign policy and security, who warns that "the European Union knows that Russia is doing everything it can to sow discontent, political instability, foreign influence, information manipulation and so on".

However - things continue to roll along as they have so far.

 

Social networks as a factor of (un)stability of foreign influence

In the digital age of social networks, when each of us spends the largest share of our free time “scrolling through the feed” of one of our numerous profiles and absorbing large amounts of short, fast, flash information intended for as large and easy consumption as possible without excessive thought about what we are actually consuming as information and who is marketing it, social networks have come into focus as the main place of conflict for foreign influence.

This was also the basis for launching an operation with the interesting name “Portal Kombat”, as reported by Radio Free Europe. No, this is not another video game, but a large-scale Russian game, a disinformation operation aimed at expanding its network of sites that will transmit the narrative dictated by the Kremlin.

The common name for all sites – the word justice. Ironic and sufficient, one might say. Especially if we also take into account the meaning of the word justice in Russian – truth.

And where there are websites of the Russian “Pravda”, there are also social networks and operations through the so-called bot swarm, which Demostat wrote about in one of its analyses. The content that these websites place in an organized, but fast and efficient, and certainly carefully designed, way is shared on social networks, of which the activity on the Telegram application is certainly the leading one. The main task is to quote as many narratives placed through “Pravda” as possible and transfer them through Telegram channels.

 

The Digital Sphere – a Battlefield of Foreign Influence

All this was revealed by the French VIGINUM agency, established in July 2021 by the French Government, which is responsible for monitoring and protecting against foreign digital influence. VIGINUM is actually directly part of the General Secretariat for Defense and National Security of France (Secrétariat général de la Défense et de la Sécurité nationale – SGDSN), which is under the authority of the French Prime Minister. The main mission of the French VIGINUM is to detect manipulation of information from abroad aimed at “destabilizing the state”. So, simply put – this agency fights in practice against cyberattacks, disinformation and fake news at the highest state level.

Conducting an investigation into this operation, VIGINUM highlighted the key role of the Russian company TigerWeb, based in Crimea, in the creation and administration of the websites from the “Portal Kombat” network. Founded in 2015, TigerWeb is a website development company whose founder, Yevgeny Shevchenko, has been developing and maintaining websites since 2013. VIGINUM also noted that some of the operational methods and content distributed through this network have many similarities to the Inforos network, which has been under European Union sanctions since July 2023, which justifies one conclusion – that TigerWeb is a service provider for Russian influence operators.

The total audience of Telegram channels, which reaches as many as 15.7 million people, while publications, i.e. published content, are viewed almost 100 million times a day, is the secret of success that allows channels associated with “Pravda” to effectively spread disinformation and manipulate public opinion around the world.

 

By using Telegram as a platform, Russia seeks to influence public opinion in targeted countries, especially among young people. The channels often focus on sensitive issues such as migration, in order to incite conflicts in society and undermine trust in democratic institutions of states. This poses a particular threat to countries where social and political tensions are high. For example, the topic of migrants is actively exploited to create a false impression of chaos and failures of Western governments. Not only does this contribute to the growth of xenophobia and racism, but it also undermines unity within the EU and other countries, which ultimately plays into Moscow’s hands.

This is neither the beginning nor the end, there are many examples.

In the end, when we draw the line, we can conclude that through the manipulation and instrumentalization of almost all national frequencies, Russian propaganda influence is permanently trying to shape public opinion, destabilize the political system, influence citizens' perceptions of all important geopolitical issues, and dictate trends. This kind of foreign influence through constant and omnipresent propaganda not only threatens democratic processes, but also has long-term negative consequences for the stability and security of our society. That is precisely why it is necessary to work tirelessly to raise awareness about the importance of combating disinformation, but also to strengthen the capacities of both political and social institutions to prevent and respond to such and other foreign influences.

And until then, given the Russian propaganda on almost all national frequencies, which, let's remember, are owned by all citizens of this country and are financed with the money of those same citizens, that is, us, we can only wonder - how long will we have to pay a subscription fee to be nothing less than misinformed.