Russian Propaganda in Europe: Leaked Documents Expose Pravfond Network

Russ­ian pro­pa­gan­da oper­a­tion in Europe has been exposed through a mas­sive doc­u­ment leak cen­tered on the Russ­ian state orga­ni­za­tion Prav­fond . On June 5, 2025, Truth­me­ter report­ed that 49,000 emails and 22,000 doc­u­ments from Prav­fond revealed sys­tem­at­ic fund­ing of influ­ence cam­paigns across Europe and the Balka­ns, includ­ing legal defense for con­vict­ed spies and financ­ing of pro-Krem­lin media out­lets dis­guised as sup­port for Russ­ian com­pa­tri­ots abroad. The arti­cle begins:

The Russ­ian gov­ern­ment orga­ni­za­tion Prav­fond is cur­rent­ly at the cen­ter of a major cross-bor­der jour­nal­is­tic inves­ti­ga­tion by dozens of media out­lets that have gained access to “leaked” inter­nal emails and doc­u­ments orig­i­nat­ing from the orga­ni­za­tion. The emails reveal that Prav­fond (The Foun­da­tion for the Sup­port and Pro­tec­tion of the Rights of Com­pa­tri­ots Liv­ing Abroad) has been financ­ing tools for Russ­ian influ­ence in Europe, includ­ing in the Balka­ns in neigh­bor­ing Bul­gar­ia under the guise of “car­ing for Russ­ian compatriots.”

Read more: https://truthmeter.mk/pravfond-funded-russian-propaganda-in-europe-and-the-balkans-international-research-reveals/

Key Points

• Prav­fond paid Bul­gar­i­an con­trac­tors over $486,000 from 2014–2024, pri­mar­i­ly for media out­lets pro­mot­ing Krem­lin ide­ol­o­gy rather than legal assis­tance for Russ­ian citizens.
• The orga­ni­za­tion fund­ed legal defense for con­vict­ed spies includ­ing taxi dri­ver Serge­js Sidorovs in Latvia and arms deal­er Vik­tor Bout.
• Dan­ish Telegram chan­nel Velin­formeret received 200,000 kro­ner to spread con­tent describ­ing Ukraine war as “Rus­si­a’s self-defense against Nazism” to Dan­ish audiences.
• West­ern intel­li­gence agen­cies con­firm Prav­fond oper­ates as a Russ­ian intel­li­gence tool for pro­pa­gan­da and dis­in­for­ma­tion oper­a­tions under cov­er of com­bat­ing discrimination.

Russia Propaganda in Europe: Disinformation Tactics, Media Networks, and Election Interference

Russ­ian pro­pa­gan­da in Europe has esca­lat­ed through a com­bi­na­tion of coor­di­nat­ed dis­in­for­ma­tion cam­paigns tar­get­ing elec­tions in Ger­many and across the con­ti­nent and the per­sis­tent acces­si­bil­i­ty of Krem­lin-backed media such as RT and Sput­nik with­in the EU despite offi­cial bans. Ger­man intel­li­gence has doc­u­ment­ed Russia’s use of fake news sites, AI-gen­er­at­ed con­tent, and oper­a­tions like Dop­pel­gänger to imper­son­ate rep­utable out­lets and sow divi­sion, par­tic­u­lar­ly around issues like Ukraine, ener­gy, and infla­tion, with the explic­it goal of reduc­ing Euro­pean sup­port for Ukraine and under­min­ing trust in demo­c­ra­t­ic institutions.

These efforts are not lim­it­ed to Ger­many; Russ­ian tac­tics extend to cyber­at­tacks and influ­ence oper­a­tions in Moldo­va, Roma­nia, and oth­er Euro­pean states, exploit­ing local vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties and polar­iz­ing soci­eties. Despite EU-wide sanc­tions, Russ­ian state media con­tin­ues to reach Euro­pean audi­ences in mul­ti­ple lan­guages, high­light­ing the chal­lenges of enforc­ing infor­ma­tion con­trols and the ongo­ing strug­gle to coun­ter­act Moscow’s influ­ence. Exter­nal report­ing con­firms that Russia’s hybrid strat­e­gy includes not only dig­i­tal dis­in­for­ma­tion but also bribery, the use of local prox­ies, and the ampli­fi­ca­tion of far-right and anti-EU nar­ra­tives, all designed to desta­bi­lize Europe and weak­en its response to Russ­ian aggression.

Exter­nal References:

1. Russ­ian inter­fer­ence in Euro­pean pol­i­tics — Wikipedia

2. Which Euro­pean coun­tries are most exposed to Russ­ian dis­in­for­ma­tion? — Euronews

3. This is what Russ­ian pro­pa­gan­da looks like in 2024 — NPR

 Disclaimer

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.