According to a new study.
The Center for Information, Democracy and Citizenship at the American University in Bulgaria examined more than 640,000 publications on the network between December 2024 and March 2025.
He found that the former Soviet and Balkan countries represented 52% of all publications, despite the representation of a disproportionate fraction of the population of the countries studied.
More specifically, the first three countries most disproportionate by Pravda's disinformation are Moldova, Latvia and Estonia, Serbia and Armenia by doing the first five.
Lithuania, Georgia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic complete the top 10.
The proximity of these countries with each other and the statistics show that there is a sophisticated effort to spread disinformation in the strategic value regions for the Kremlin, according to the study.
“Six of the ten targeted nations of the first accommodate critical energy infrastructure connecting European markets to Russian supplies, indicating a potential strategic interest in regions with a meaning of energy security,” he said.
“Pravda's targeting model is aligned with documented strategies for using information as a tool to extend influence in regions considered to be strategic,” he continued. “The systematic nature of the distribution suggests a coordinated campaign rather than an independent media activity or an interest in the organic public.”
The Pravda network is a set of websites created for the dissemination of pro-Russian propaganda.
Also known as Portal Combat, the activities of the Pravda network broadcast false news in different European languages in the past 17 years, with its first areas and ecosystem publications followed in 2013.
The French Viginum agency, responsible for digital surveillance and protection against international interference, was the first to detect the network. He more recently published a report in February 2024 announcing the identification of a large disinformation campaign in Europe.
Why is Moldova so strongly classified with regard to Russian disinformation?
One of the reasons is geography: it is positioned between Ukraine and Romania, representing a border between Eastern and Western Europe – two different spheres of influence, depending on the study.
Another is its political context: it received the EU candidacy status in June 2022 and is currently faced with tensions Between pro-Western and Pro-Russian factions.
This is also linked to its history: as a former Soviet Republic, Moldova has economic, cultural and historical ties with Moscow while trying to get closer to the EU.
Why does Russia specifically target Eastern Europe?
According to Sophia Freuden, researcher, researcher of American Sunlight Project – an initiative that aims to protect the American democracy from the disinformation of foreign and domestic policies – an initiative that aims to protect American democracy in the United States.
ADVERTISEMENT“The Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation have all practiced territorial expansion as a means of projection of power and alleged survival,” she told Eurovenife. “What we see in the digital space is not different; it is not a coincidence that Ukraine was among the main targets of Russian disinformation even before Euromaidan and the following war in the Donbas.”
She noted that the Balkans are an “interesting case” because Moscow has not historically considered that these countries were “Russian”.
“Instead, the Balkans represent both a 'historical sphere of influence of Russia – they derive strongly from the philosophy of offensive realism to justify this – and more substantially, they consider the Balkans as a stolen door in Europe,” said Freuden. “Because many Balkan countries are EU and / or NATO members, or like Serbia they have aspirations to be, they are now special ways to place Russian disinformation in an information space which is increasingly closed and hostile to Russian digital interference.”
“This is no longer true that the EU taking measures to prohibit entities like RT from operating in Europe,” she added.
ADVERTISEMENTWhat types of disinformation stories are shared in these countries?
As in many regions of the world, disinformation accounts shared by pro-Russian actors tend to focus on the war in Ukraine, the United States and NATO.
“The main objective of Russian disinformation operations since the start of the war is to sell the false story that Russia was in some way forced to invade Ukraine because Ukraine had become a puppet of the United States and NATO,” said Freuden. “They try to sell this story all over the world, both inside and outside the West, as a means of justifying their war.”
She said that she had examined the Russian disinformation targeting the Balkans with theories of the anti-vaccine conspiracy and a disinformation, which was particularly true to the peak of the coco-9 pandemic, when Russia tried to promote its own vaccine and delegitimize Western efforts to control the virus.
Russia also tends to amplify separatist or extreme right and ethnunizationalists in Eastern and Southeast Europe.
ADVERTISEMENT“The main reason is to divide the European population and Xenophobia Stoke as well as anti-EU feeling,” said Freuden. “A divided Europe is much easier to conquer than a united Europe.”
What can Eastern Europe do to counter Russian disinformation?
Countries should adopt an approach throughout society to combat disinformation, according to Freuden.
“Education for children and adults on information literacy – covering the media, digital and literacy of AI – is crucial,” she said. “Populations will only be immune to Russian disinformation if they learn to identify and avoid it.”
She added that governments should finance their own agencies as well as civil society organizations to monitor and fight against foreign disinformation.
ADVERTISEMENT“With the collapse of the USAID, we see many projects and counter-directory agencies closed worldwide,” Freuden told Eurovenify. “This only helps anti-democratic actors such as Russia and China to affect their totalitarian foreign policy objectives on vulnerable populations.”
