VSQUARE SPECIAL REPORT
How Central Europe was trapped by Eastern input
Russian influencing strategies are like a swarm of bees: they consist of many small factors that don’t match one particular frame. VSquare Project report presents an analysis of Russian propaganda influencing, which turns out to be the main weapon used in a quiet information war.
Slovenskí Branci: a military hobby or armed threat?
For at least seven years, an unofficial but yet uniformed paramilitary group has been recruiting young men in Slovakia. Minister of Defense filed a motion to inspect the legality of Slovenskí Branci’s activities because of military-like trainings with unclear goals, as well as possible abuse of military technology.
Martin Turček
Peter Sabo
Western Ukraine burning. How Russia sets fire to the EU’s external border
Disguised as Ukrainian nationalists, three Poles set fire to the seat of Hungarian minority in Ukraine. It might sound like a scene from „The Olsen Gang”, but it is not – it really happened. The country that benefits from the arsons is Russia. Authors: Anastasiya Moroz, Sebastian Klauziński, Szabolcs Panyi, Patryk Szczepaniak, Konrad Szczygieł (oko.press) […]
Cast some votes for Putin
It was at the end of the day that we realized: they were cheating us. Suddenly it became clear that in Putin’s Russia, there’s no need to falsify votes in the elections. They know better tricks.
Mateusz Bajek
Nuclear lobbyists, Judo championship and Putin’s tricks
Hungary’s largest university teamed up with local Rosatom lobbyists in a freelancing effort to please the Russian president with a surprise award ceremony
From internet brigades to troll factories
The Russian online propaganda offensive has been launched after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. The aftermath of this operation still echoes around the world today.
VSQUARE
The Dogs of War, the Dogs of Disinformation
The Kremlin propaganda keeps on fueling stories about foreign mercenaries fighting the separatists in Donbas. Are there really foreign death squadrons active in Ukraine? Yes. Are they Polish? No.
VSQUARE
Satan’s hand: Russian meddling behind Budapest’s metro chaos
The head of Budapest’s public transport was in the way of a Russian metro company’s business, with more than 200 million euros at stake. A KGB-style provokatsiya was utilized to get him fired and force the Hungarian capital to buy malfunctioning and expensive Russian metro cars.
The Hunter of Russian propaganda
‘Circles close to Kremlin are trying to turn the border city of Przemyśl into Polish Belfast. They are doing it through reviving long standing disagreements between Poland and Ukraine, and with help of the local radical nationalists,” says Marcin Rey, the creator of a Facebook profile „Russian 5th Column in Poland’.
VSQUARE
The man who wanted more
Alexander Usovski was active in the Visegrad region, set up foundations, looked for EU grants, finally received money from Russia in cash, without leaving any paper trail. That’s how he started to organize a network of dutiful and useful people. And indeed, everything went just the way his sponsor wanted.
A pocket revolution bought with Russian money
Perhaps he was a fool, a liar and a fraud, the Baron von Munchausen of Russian influence in Europe. But the case of Alexander Usovsky – even though it may seem like a farce – is actually very serious. It’s the first so thoroughly documented example of Moscow’s foreign policy. It shows sources of its financing and explains who is answering to Kremlin’s propaganda puppet masters. And how it makes use of radical nationalists.