School celebrations, patriotic marches and national holidays. All accompanied by ever-present weapons and green uniforms. In countries of the Central Europe patriotism increasingly means militarism, and civil values are being displaced by the cult of weapons and combat. Nobody controls this movement. VSquare special report shows, that states are supporting amateur militarists on an unprecedented...
The Russian online propaganda offensive was launched after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. The aftermath of this operation still echoes around the world today. Organized groups of pro-Kremlin online commentators have been active for at least 17 years, since the beginning of Vladimir Putin’s presidency. In 2003, the name...
Alexander Usovsky was active in the Visegrad region, set up foundations, looked for EU grants, finally received money from Russia in cash, without leaving any paper trail. That’s how he started to organize a network of dutiful and useful people. And indeed, everything went just the way his sponsor wanted. The case of Alexander Usovsky,...
Perhaps he was a fool, a liar and a fraud, the Baron von Munchausen of Russian influence in Europe. But the case of Alexander Usovsky – even though it may seem like a farce – is actually very serious. It’s the first so thoroughly documented example of Moscow’s foreign policy. It shows sources of its financing...
For several months, a group of investigative journalists from the VSquare project was researching the problem of Russian propaganda in V4 countries. Our findings prove that Russians are exceptionally effective when it comes to informational warfare. They use propaganda to gain certain advantages and frame the situation in the most favorable way. The way that...