Russian propaganda has a strong presence in the Western Balkans

The “Balkan Disinfo 2025” conference focused on disinformation in the Balkans and Russian propaganda. The Russian narrative is largely present in Kosovo, North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was said.

Festim Rizanaj, a researcher for the fact-checking platform “Hibrid.info”, presented a report in which, as he emphasized, it was proven that Russia was using Kosovo as a pretext for its interactions.

“If we look at the Russian narratives in the Western Balkans, they mainly focus on the Serbian language because Serbian is the most spoken language in the Western Balkans and therefore the Russians have decided that their media services such as ‘Sputnik’ and ‘Russia Today’ will broadcast information in Serbian.” At the same time, Russian influences dominate in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina due to the Republika Srpska. Their approach is to distort narratives, influence the mood in Russia and spread anti-Western, NATO-related and other propaganda. “They also use the technique of making various comparisons between Kosovo and the aggression that Russia has committed on the surrounding borders,” he said.

Furthermore, Rizanaj said that Russia is an obstacle to the international recognition of Kosovo.

“At the same time, [Russia] is using its veto power at the UN to prevent the international recognition of Kosovo, and that is an obstacle.” At the same time, Serbian nationalism is being used to exert influence in the Western Balkans. Russia is primarily using NATO’s intervention in 1999 as a precedent or pretext, using it as a pretext for Russia’s interventions in Georgia, Moldova and most recently Ukraine… “Russia Today” also started its broadcasts on November 15, 2022 after the aggression in Ukraine with the slogan “Kosovo is Serbia”, with this slogan they started their broadcasts in Serbian…”, Rizanaj added.

The journalist from North Macedonia, Xhelal Neziri, said that Russian propaganda continues to have influence there and cited relevant cases.

“We are experiencing all kinds of polarizations that are used or exploited by Russia to increase or expand its influence in Macedonia.” We only have to remember 2017, when a group of protesters attempted a coup in North Macedonia, and the same scenario as in 2016 in Montenegro. The reason was that we had a transitional government with rotation in Macedonia in 2017. “And the new government, which was expected to bring a solution to the crises and lift the NATO integration process, was expected to prevent this kind of integration. Just like in Montenegro, Russian-backed forces and protesters attacked and entered the parliament to block the process,” he said.

Darko Brkan from Bosnia and Herzegovina also emphasized that the Russian narrative was strongly present in this Western Balkan country.

“When we talk about Russian narratives and propaganda that is pro-Russian, is it there? Yes, I would say on a large scale, and why?” First of all, this is because the EU provides a large part of the government, and mainly the government of Republika Srpska, and everything that exists in the other levels of government in Republika Srpska is inherently pro-Russian. And that is a fact. Why invest in something that is locally funded and doesn’t need any investment at all to have Russian influence? But how is it paid for? “Payment is made through Vladimir Putin, depending on how problematic the situation is,” he concluded.

The “Balkan Disinfo 2025” conference will take place in Pristina and will be attended by experts in the field from different countries around the world.