© picture alliance / globallookpress.com | Belkin Aleksey
Ahead of Sunday's parliamentary elections in Armenia, Russia has flooded the country with disinformation. This was reported by the New York Times.
On Sunday, Armenians step to the polls to elect a new parliament. Ahead of the elections, Russia is conducting an exceptionally intense disinformation campaign against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The latter caused his country to draw closer to Europe and the United States and openly clash with Moscow.
Numerous groups affiliated with Russia's highest political circles and Russian intelligence services spread mass false stories on social media: in them, the Armenian prime minister is accused of corruption, conspiracy against Russia, sexual abuse, organ trafficking and even a hidden disease.
"We have used all means at our disposal for this," Ruben Rubinyan, a leading member of Pashinyan's party and deputy speaker of parliament, told the New York Times. "Hopefully people will see this, and hopefully in this new era of artificial intelligence and disinformation, people will be better equipped to distinguish between what is true and what is not."
Previous attempts at influence
That Moscow resorts to such actions to influence the outcome of a ballot is not new. For example, the Moscow marketing agency Social Design Agency distributes (fake) videos that appear to come from real news organizations. An EU-sanctioned propaganda organization publishes articles that were viewed millions of times. AI-generated images and hacked accounts on social media are also being used.
Whether the influence campaign will achieve anything is uncertain: in recent elections in Moldova, a pro-European party remained in power, and despite support from Russia, Viktor Orbán was unable to win the elections in Hungary and had to give way to Péter Magyar.
Pashinyan is currently ahead in the polls and also recently received support from U.S. President Donald Trump. The EU held a summit in Yerevan last month and established an expert mission to counter Russian influence.
Illustration picture: © picture alliance / globallookpress.com | Belkin Aleksey