How did Russian media distribute manipulative content before Kosovo elections?

These are some of the dozens of titles in Russian state media supported by the Kremlin, RT Balkans and Sputnik Serbia, which were published during the pre-election campaign in Kosovo from January 11th to February 9th.

The European Union's Mission for Election Observation stressed in its report that these two media have published about 60 articles on elections in Kosovo since the beginning of January, and that some of them have had a luscious manipulation of the Serb community.

The report did not isolate any text with “manipulating content”, but Radio Free Europe analyzed some of them.

The emphasis is mainly placed on the Serbian List as Serbia's “defender” of Serbian interests in Kosovo, while Kosovo authorities and current prime minister, Albin Kurti, are linked to “due to the Serbian” or “attacks” against them, though without any evidence that would support such claims.

Ivana Stradner, an associate at the Washington-based Nongovernmental Foundation for the Protection of Democracy, tells Radio Free Europe that Russia has a long history of <x0 information options to intervene in elections, support a certain candidate, polarise society or reduce the importance of democracy”.

“In the Balkans, Russia needs chaos in order to use it in negotiations with the West, in which [Russian president Vladimir] Putin would be positioned as mediator and would have told the West that if he did not want chaos to escalate, he should negotiate with him. So it would use it as a shop tool”, Stradner says.

She adds that Moscow “does not need to send tanks and aircraft” to destabilise the region, but that there are enough “intelligence and sabotage”.

Free Europe Radio Free Europe asked the Government of Kosovo comments on the assessments of the EU Mission for Election Observation that RT Balkans and Sputnik Serbia have published dozens of written texts against the Serbian community during the pre-election campaign, and asked what has been done to prevent the impact of these media, but received no answers.

How does manipulation become?

The writing, titled “Pristina miscalculated either the Molotov cocktails will not intimidate Serbs”, published on January 28th on the Sputnik Serbia website, alludes that Kosovo authorities wanted “] they intimidated Serbs in Kosovo with Molotov cocktails.

This narrator starts from the first sentence:

“We should not be surprised whether in Kosovo and Metohija continue the incidents, with which Pristina will try to intimidate Serbs and the Serbian List before the February elections, but let it remember that Serbs are challenging people”.

Although this is a quote attributed to Luka Jovanovic, professor at the University of North Mitrovica, the text author plans to see how “Pristina tries to intimidate Serbs before the elections”, while in the following paragraph it can be read as unknown persons, in fact, the Molotov cocktail in the car of a Serbian List activist.

The text further says that there has been a “attack against Serbs” and that “such an act should be seen in the context of increased violence exercised by the Pristina regime against the Serbian population”.

There is no mention there that Kosovo Police have launched investigations or that, a day earlier, unknown authors have burned the billboard to the Serbian People's Movement as well as participants in the Kosovo elections outside its MP candidate's home.

In the RT Balkan article “what brings the elections to Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija: From Adem Jashari and Hashim Thaci to the back Kurti”, published on January 30th, alludes that Vetevendosje leader Albin Kurti tried to “used” Kosovo Security Forces at a pre-election rally in Skenderaj, while later found that “has no changes in the attitude of the Albanian elites and in Pristina's policy towards Serbs” and that the goal has always been “the Serbians' ”.

It says that <x0modas have changed”, that there are no more “migrates, bombings, murders, camps, organ removal, as in the time of the KLA”, but that Serbs are now pushed into a silent “” through “continuous pressure, arrests, false war crimes charges...”.

No evidence of such claims is presented. Nor is the fact that Serbian forces have committed crimes against Albanian civilians during the 1998/99 war in Kosovo, and that several individuals have been tried before the International Court in The Hague.

Also, no evidence has been found for “organ trafficking”.

Some 13,000 people have been killed during the Kosovo war, while about 1,600 missing persons -- mainly from the Albanian community -- are still on the run.

“Serbian List Figorisation”

There is also news in which Sputnik Serbia and RT Balkans have reflected exclusively Serbian List campaign, as well as broadcast statements by officials of this party, saying only the Serbian List brings unity to Serbs in Kosovo, that it fights for the survival of Serbs under impossible and similar conditions.

This narratory can also be seen in the headlines of these news items, some of which are: “The closing completion of the Serbian List in Zvecan: On Sunday, the Serbian people's referendum in Kosovo and Metohija”, the Serbian “List in the Upper Box: In Kosovo and Metohija there are battles for the survival of Serbs”, “Tuming of the Serbian List in Kosovo: On Sunday, Serbian state and Serbian unity”, Serbian “List: We represent the interests of the Serbian people, so we disturb Kurti”.

In no text in the RT Balkans or Sputnik Serbia concerning the elections in Kosovo, the reader has been able to learn that, except for the Serbian List, five other political subjects from the Serb community have participated in the Kosovo Assembly contest: The Serbian Democracy Party, the Party for Freedom, Justice and Survival, the Serb People's Movement, the Party of Kosovo Serbs and the Citizens' Initiative of People's Justice.

There is also no mention that MPs from the Serbian List have been exposed to criticism from political opinions and opponents because they have them in the last two years. boycotted Kosovo Assembly sessions, presenting for signing every six months, only to preserve mandates and salaries.

Due to the Serbian List boycott policy, following its withdrawal from Kosovo institutions in November 2022, power in the four Serb majority municipalities in northern Kosovo has taken the Albanian leaders, which has led to protests in the Serb community and frequent crises.

The situation has culminated in September 2023, when an armed group of Serbs, led by former Serbian List Deputy Chairman Milan Radojic, attacked the Kosovo Police in the village of Banjska and killed a policeman.

Hibrid.info for the Russian media “Conspiracyoriies”

On Report Misinformation monitors for January, Portal Hibrid.info, which monitors dezinforms for Kosovo in the media, writes that Sputnik has on several occasions during January dealt with conspiracy theories and that readers have been deceived into believing that the elections in Kosovo “used”.

One example is Sputnik's news on January 21st, in which Russian Foreign Ministry representative Maria Zakharova claims that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, “intends to forge Kosovo elections at the expense of the Serbian List, and to place at Pristina's <x1 parliamentary dolls.

No evidence was presented for these claims.

“With the hands of Pristina's self-declared authorities, with the co-operation and encouragement of Washington and EU allies, continues a ruthless campaign for the cleansing of Kosovo and Metohija by Serbs, as well as for the implementation of violent albanisation”, Zakharova said, whose declaration, apart from Sputnik, broadcast the RT to the Balkans.

Hibrid.info has also highlighted a text in Sputnik, in which the director of the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia, Petar Petkov, claims Kurti aims to create an ethnically clean Kosovo and form a “Large Albania”

Even for that claim, no evidence was presented.

What extent do these media have?

RT and Sputnik are under sanctions in Kosovo, in line with the European Union's sanctions policy, which was undertaken after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

So the television channels of these media are not available in cable operators, including those in Kosovo's majority Serb areas, which are mostly covered by the MTS d.o.o. ʹ subsidiary of the Serbian company “Telekom”. This company came out of the Brussels Agreement between Kosovo and Serbia and is registered according to Kosovo laws.

Otherwise, Serbia has not imposed sanctions on Russia and, therefore, against Russian media backed by the Kremlin.

Online platforms RT Balkans and Sputnik Serbia were not available in Kosovo on 13 February and 14 February through internet companies operating in Kosovo HINA Vala, Ipko and MTS.

However, on February 18th, the Sputnik Serbia website was accessible via the internet of all these operators, while RT Balkans remained blocked.

Free Europe radio contacted Vala, Ipko and MTS to ask how access to Sputnik's website is possible if it is under sanctions from the Government of Kosovo, but did not receive answers.

Earlier, MTS told him. REL that the company adheres to the list for blocking that has been sent to it by the Regulatory Authority for Electronic and Post Communication of Kosovo (ARKEP).

“Although we have strictly adhered to the list offered by ARKEP, we accept the possibility of emerging new portals that are not part of the original”, MTS said.

The Regulatory Authority for Electronic and Post Communications tells Radio Free Europe that all internet providers and mobile operators are obliged to block Russian media websites, in line with sanctions imposed on them, but that because of the dynamic nature of the internet, the availability of these websites can change.

This depends on the measures implemented by local authorities, as well as the use of virtual private networks (VPN) or of proxy servers, which can bypass these restrictions. Lack of domestic internet/cod domain ( c c T The LD also creates additional challenges in this process”, says ARKEP.

The European Union's Mission for Election Observation emphasises in its report that extending RT and Sputnik is limited to social media, as they are only present on the X platform, where their posts rarely reach more than 2,000 users.

However, these two media are also available in channels on the telegram, where their contents can be read in part without entering their official pages directly.

Ivana Stradner, associate at the Nongovernmental Foundation for the Protection of Democracy in Washington, says he often listens to statements that RT and Sputnik have no influence in the Balkans, because they do not read and have enough “preferences” and social networking interactions.

But this thesis, according to her, “bie in water”, because their texts transmit local media, bloggers and influence through their social networks.

“RT and Sputnik are Moscow's weapons through which it controls or imposes narrost. Russian military courts openly say that anyone who has the advantage of information will win the war. And the West is already in a war of information with Moscow, but also with Iran and with China”, Stradner says.

The Reporters Without Borders organisation, in last year's report titled “From Russia to Serbia: Like RT spread Kremlin propaganda in the Balkans, despite EU sanctions”, stressed that the content of RT Balkans was quoted in the media in Serbia, including in Serbia's public broadcaster Radio Television.

“RT was quoted as a reliable source of news about Russia and, as a result, RT Balkans function as the state news agency, similar to Russia's TASS”, the report said.

Russia does not recognise Kosovo's independence, but has its liaison office in Pristina since 2005. However, the activities of this office are not known to the public.

Do Kosovo Serbs trust Russian media?

Northern Mitrovica citizens, surveyed by Radio Free Europe, say they once followed the RT Balkans and Sputnik online, but that they are no longer available.

Nenad says he has never fully trusted the Kremlin-backed media, but that he does not trust even certain media supported by Western countries.

By all means, this global picture takes into account. Both sides are propaganda”, he says.

Stefan says when he could, he followed Sputnik to Serbia. According to him, it is undemocratic to deprive access to it.

I think Sputnik is democratic because it broadcasts all sides. Then it is up to people to believe or not”, he says.

Alexander says that until they were banned, he has opened Sputnik and RT to the Balkans, but that he has not regularly followed them.

I always look at everything with a bit of suspicion, but it depends on the news... I was going to do my research on other media, and maybe later I'd come up with a” conclusion, he says.

Reporters Without Borders on Establishment and Influence of RT Balkans

In the 2024 report, Reporters Without Borders estimated that the report on the X network of RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, hinted at the media's motive for expanding even in Serbia.

We have started RT in the Balkans. Because Kosovo is Serbia”, said in Report after opening of RT BalkansNovember 15, 2022.

Reporters Without Borders also said that in September 2024 they sent a questionnaire to this medium about the mission in the Balkans, but, as they said, they received a sarcastic response: “We established RT Balkans with a goal to upset Reporters Without Borders”.

“The provocative, political response shows how RT is positioned as an antithesis of an organisation protecting independent media. RT also does not want to disclose information about the mission or its relations with the government, which independent media such as this Russian medium claims should be able to offer”, Reporters Without Borders said in their report.

How to Stop Russia's Media Influence

Stradner points out that Russia “well recognises the sensitive points in the region” and that “likes to use the role of religion and ethnic tensions in its” operations.

Amid increasing tensions, the goal is to create chaos in the region, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also in Kosovo”, she says.

Stradner adds that Russia's influence will not decline, though <x0 shumers in the West like to speculate on this”.

“S late, RT opened another television station. Television information operations, which I follow, only grow, while Moscow has adapted its strategy, dealing more with the influence of social networking bloggers in the Balkans, so that they can spread its Narratives”, Stradner says.

To prevent deinformation from Russia, the West must send teams against the hybrid war, it says, adding that Moscow does not follow the rules that exist in the information space, “because it is not democracy”.

In this context, it stresses that Western countries should invest more in education of young people and free media, as well as punish leaders and subjects in the region who control media freedom and spread disinformation. /Radio Europe Free