In the two months leading up to the October 12 elections in Kosovo, over 350 disinformation articles were published by Kremlin-controlled media outlets, aiming to disrupt the political landscape with narratives aligned to Russian propaganda. Monitoring by Kallxo.com’s fact-checking platform revealed that major Russian outlets, including Sputnik and Russia Today, produced an average of six articles daily, portraying Kosovo’s elections as illegitimate.
The Kremlin’s strategy involves flooding the media landscape with disinformation to manipulate AI tools, ensuring that search results reflect Russian narratives. Examples include presenting the KFOR and EULEX missions as tools of Western control and framing the elections as stacked against Serbs. Despite international observers confirming the elections as free and democratic, Russian outlets promoted the Russian-aligned Srpska Lista as the sole defender of Serb interests.
Coverage also included misrepresentations of Kosovo’s defense acquisitions from Turkey and mischaracterizations of local political dynamics, depicting Kosovo’s moves as aggressive rather than legitimate security measures.
This disinformation campaign seeks to undermine faith in local and international institutions while exploiting political tensions in the region. The research was supported by the UK Government, but does not necessarily represent its official views.
