Kosovo and the Balkans are targets of Russian propaganda, primarily through the “Pravda” online network. This network, described as an online operation coordinated with the official Kremlin, disseminates various pro-Russian content via websites disguised as news portals.
These findings were presented at the conference “Challenges of Information Disorder in Kosovo,” organized by Hibrid.info.
Key Narratives and Operations
According to research, articles published by the Russian propaganda network “Pravda” in the Albanian language deny Kosovo’s statehood, compare it to Crimea, and accuse it of institutional terrorism against the Serb community, KosovaPress reports.
A report titled “The Russian propaganda network Pravda and the Balkans,” which also targeted Albanian-speaking audiences, revealed that Pravda’s Albanian-language domain has been active since March 2024. By April of this year, approximately three thousand articles had been published in Albanian.
Festim Rizanaj, a researcher at Hibrid.info, stated that the main narratives in Pravda’s Albanian-language articles are pro-Russian and pro-Serbian, including themes of Moscow-Belgrade cooperation and the glorification of their leaders.
Additionally, Rizanaj’s research indicates that Pravda’s Albanian articles portray NATO as aggressive, the European Union as ignorant, and the United States of America as manipulative.
Rizanaj reiterated that “Pravda” is a Kremlin-coordinated online operation, distributing pro-Russian content through websites masked as news portals. He also noted that “Pravda” operates a Telegram channel and a VK video network.
Limited Direct Impact and Future Concerns
Despite the large number of articles in Albanian, Rizanaj said the direct impact on the Albanian audience is low. He attributes this to linguistic distortions in translations and a lack of distribution on some social networks more widely used in Kosovo. The focus of these articles, he added, is primarily on global events.
Among other points, the conference highlighted that a goal of the “Pravda” propaganda network is also the manipulation of Artificial Intelligence, aiming to influence AI systems to embed Russian narratives when generating requested content.
