Whether it is trying to discredit democratic processes, undermine civil society movements, or tarnish European institutions, Moscow’s spin and clumsy fabrications keep clashing with the facts on the ground.

The Kremlin’s manipulations targeting Georgia

The Kremlin’s playbook is getting tediously predictable in its attempts to discredit legitimate protests in Georgia. As Georgians have taken to the streets following the Georgian government’s decision to suspend EU accession talks and allegations of electoral fraud in the October 2024 parliamentary elections, pro-Kremlin mouthpieces have immediately reached for their favourite bogeymen: ‘Western-engineered coups’ and ‘colour revolutions’.

While President Salome Zourabichvili has raised serious concerns about electoral irregularities, the EU called for a transparent investigation of reported violations and has expressed serious concerns about Georgia’s democratic backsliding. Meanwhile, Moscow’s mouthpieces were busy recycling their decade-old conspiracy theories about Ukraine’s 2014 Revolution of Dignity.

This Kremlin narrative is not just stale – it is part of a deliberate strategy to pre-emptively discredit Georgian civil society, with pro-Kremlin outlets having spent months warning about an imaginary ‘upcoming colour revolution’ to poison the information space ahead of likely protests against the ruling party.

… and Romania

The Kremlin’s inability to accept democratic realities is also evident in its attempts to interfere with Romania’s presidential election process. The pro-Kremlin TV channel Zvezda, run by Russia’s Ministry of Defence and under the EU’s restrictive measures, is trying hard to spin the first-round results into evidence of widespread pro-Russian sentiment in Romania.

After a full recount of 9.4 million ballots, right-wing candidate Calin Georgescu, whose campaign included reducing Romania’s support for Ukraine, will face reformist Elena Lasconi in the second round on 8 December.

The Kremlin vs the new European Commission

The approval and the start of the second von der Leyen Commission has triggered an uncharacteristically intense wave of attacks from pro-Kremlin outlets. As we recently reported, Russian state mouthpiece RT is frantically pushing narratives about ‘EU militarisation’, while Konstantin Gavrilov, Russia’s representative at the Vienna arms control talks, speculated about the EU transforming from a ‘purely economic and political association’ into a ‘military threat’.

Moscow seems particularly triggered by the new Commission’s composition, with Dmitry Medvedev dismissing its members as ‘non-entities with inflated self-esteem’. Pro-Kremlin outlets have been especially hostile toward former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as High Representative and former Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius as Defence Commissioner, dubbing the latter the ‘Commissioner for War against Russia’.

Spike in pro-Kremlin outlets’ coverage following the new European Commission’s approval

Our monitoring of Russian-language pro-Kremlin outlets and mouthpieces revealed a major spike in hostile messaging. On December 2, we recorded 179 news mentions – a whopping 1105% increase from the daily average. Unsurprisingly, the coverage was overwhelmingly negative, with 75% of non-neutral mentions expressing negative sentiment – a staggering 5800% increase from typical levels. The narratives focused heavily on HRVP Kaja Kallas, whose name appeared in 141 mentions, alongside frequent references to security policy matters.

The Kremlin henchmen’s hysterical rhetoric, ranging from calling von der Leyen ‘Queen Ursula’ to attacking new commissioners and spinning conspiracy theories about Brussels seizing power from Member States, reveals Moscow’s growing anxiety about a more assertive European Union and frustration with the Kremlin’s dawning irrelevance.

More pro-Kremlin disinformation this week that deserves our collective facepalm

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