Sweden warns Russian disinformation is targeting upcoming European elections
Russian information campaigns and bot networks are threatening upcoming elections across major European nations by spreading fake news about Ukraine on social media, Sweden’s Psychological Defence Agency Director Magnus Hjort told Politico on September 10.
Sweden's Psychological Defence Agency director Magnus Hjort warned on September 10 that Russian disinformation campaigns and bot networks are targeting upcoming elections in major European countries by spreading fake news about Ukraine on social media. Hjort stated that elections provide a "window of opportunity" for Vladimir Putin's information war machine to polarize and divide European societies.
The Kremlin's primary objective is to make voters doubt whether their politicians should continue sending money and weapons to Ukraine by disseminating false stories about Ukrainian corruption and other abuses. Moscow is primarily targeting elections in Europe's most powerful nations, including Germany and the upcoming French presidential campaign, where far-right parties sympathetic to Russia are expected to gain record support.
Hjort emphasized that social media platforms, such as Meta, TikTok, and X, must intensify efforts to dismantle networks of automated accounts (bots) spreading foreign disinformation and running influence campaigns. He noted that social media giants prioritize making money, while his agency aims to remove bot networks targeting democracies.
His agency reported a constant flow of foreign information manipulation and interference, originating from countries like Russia, China, and Iran. Recently, they uncovered evidence of a Russian-aligned disinformation campaign using the Matryoshka method, which aims to distract fact-checkers and journalists by sending emails about Russians' actions, hoping they will publish debunked content, wasting their time.
To counter these campaigns, Hjort believes the best approach is to ignore them completely. Sweden has identified a state actor responsible for a bot network of 1,200 accounts on X, which targeted Sweden and other countries. These accounts initially discussed innocuous topics like vacations and sports but later published 50,000 posts and comments in 2025 and 2026, expressing strongly divisive views on political issues.
Although no "coordinated campaign targeting Sweden" has been identified, the far-right, pro-Russian Alternative for Germany party (AfD) won a significant share of votes in the Saxony-Anhalt state election on September 6. France's far-right National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen is currently leading in the polls for the April 2027 presidential election.
Written by urgent.news from New Voice of Ukraine's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
