Recent analysis conducted by SOMA’s member Debunk EU showed that hostile media sources have switched their focus from the military agenda of NATO to the political one, with various messages targeting the international agreements of the Alliance and questioning its commitment to the principles of international security and peace.
In specific, analysis of the disinformation flow in January 2021 indicated that false and misleading articles about NATO aimed to reach domestic audiences in Russia. As Debunk EU points out, one of the most prominent cases was a conspiracy that NATO was behind the protests against the detention of Alexei Navalny in Russia and plans to interfere in the upcoming Russian elections.
In January 2021, Debunk EU reviewed 3124 articles with potentially harmful content were reviewed and identified 720 articles with false and misleading content. They were distributed in 82 media outlets in the Baltic countries in English, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Russian languages. The articles had a potential reach of 546 million contacts.
You can read the full analysis here.