French President Emmanuel Macron described Russia’s comprehensive approach to the Ukraine invasion, from cooperation with North Korea and Iran, to conducting cyber-attacks and electoral interference in his address to the nation on March 5.
“Russia is trying to manipulate our opinions with lies spread on social networks. And deep down, it is testing our limits. It does it in the air, at sea, in space and behind our screens,” Macron said.
As Europe and the UK confront a difficult new reality where the US security era is coming to an end, the urgent need to build up defense capabilities will draw on two sources of funding. First, European countries will borrow more (some, like Germany, will find this easier than others) and second, they will resort to budget cuts.
But as the continent reviews spending in this new geopolitical landscape, it is important that strategic communications programs aimed at deterring Russian influence are included as part of our defense strategy and within the defense budget. To secure European peace and democracy, the projects protecting our information space should be viewed through the lens of security, given the same priority, and boosted financially.
Russia is pouring huge sums into its propaganda machine — both at home, where spending is rising 13% this year to $1.4bn, and abroad — while Europe nations constantly find themselves constrained by resources. Already likely outspent by Russia, Western projects countering propaganda that are supported by international and especially US aid have come under pressure recently.
Democracies are already in a more difficult position in fighting influence operations. The challenges include finding common ground with social media platforms, protecting free speech even when we disagree with the messenger, and coping with limited funding.
The effectiveness of foreign influence operations has been a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some argue that the impact is negligible, others say we’ve only discovered the tip of the iceberg. In Romania, the impact of propaganda shook democracy to its core — leading to the cancelation of a presidential election — because the constitutional court said it had poisoned the process. Vice President JD Vance scoffed at this idea, saying it falsely suggested that “democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country.” China and Russia were lesser threats than the continent’s hostility to free speech, he argued.
There is a profound disagreement at the heart of this. It is hard to deny that Kremlin propaganda points about Ukraine and the war have been widely shared — for example the false claim that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a dictator, or that Ukraine began a conflict that was in fact started by Russia.
Other examples include of Russian influence operations include:
- A false video claiming that USAID paid Hollywood stars millions of dollars to visit Ukraine going viral on social media and being amplified by Elon Musk;
- Russia-linked Telegram channels encouraging UK residents to commit violent attacks on mosques and Muslims while offering cryptocurrency in return; and
- reported recruitment attempts of disgruntled US federal employees working in national security.
Kremlin narratives on Ukraine and the international order, embedded in both right and left-wing rhetoric, travel across the world and are often widely believed. Even now, the lie that Russia’s covert invasion of Eastern Ukraine in 2014 was in fact the start of a civil war is often repeated by Western citizens on social media.
Such untruths feed a destructive and divisive public discourse within democratic states. And the situation will only worsen with rapid technological developments in deepfakes and AI — as identified here by the BBC — will increasingly be weaponized by malign actors.
Europe needs “to do whatever it takes” to strengthen defense, says incoming German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. What it takes is decisive action in building up our defense capabilities, including protecting our information space, and doing so with urgency.
We need to double down on deterring foreign influence. It isn’t enough to focus on military capabilities when societies are falling victim to Russian propaganda. Our future and the future of the next generation are at stake. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
Valeria Jegisman is an expert on Russia, strategic communications and media. Her background includes independent consulting, the strategic communications department of the Estonian Government, journalism with Voice of America in Washington, and project management with NGOs on both sides of the Atlantic.
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions expressed on Europe’s Edge are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
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