Germany establishes special group to counter Russian disinformation

Bloomberg reports this on June 18.

The initiative involves the Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Justice of the Federal Republic of Germany. Initially comprising 10 analysts, the unit plans to expand to 20, focusing on monitoring and analyzing information.

Bloomberg underscores that Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition is advancing its national security strategy, identifying the Kremlin as Germany's primary security threat.

The group will focus on identifying disinformation operations on social media, including those that may be funded by Moscow.

"One example is the so-called 'Doppelgänger' campaign, which generated more than a million posts on X from tens of thousands of fake accounts within a few weeks, according to the German government," Bloomberg reports.

The group also aims to prevent and counter disinformation campaigns before they gain momentum.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin aims to undermine the peace order in Europe and weaken as many liberal democracies as possible. He has supporters on both the far right and far left within our parliaments who echo his propaganda," stated German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

• On June 7, reports revealed Russian interference in French children's TV channels by airing military videos in Russian.