The Russian propaganda network “Pravda” is an online operation coordinated with the official Kremlin, distributing various pro-Russian content through websites disguised as news portals.
This was stated at the conference “Challenges of Information Disorder in Kosovo,” organized by Hibrid.info.
According to research, articles published by the Russian propaganda network “Pravda” in Albanian deny Kosovo’s statehood, compare it to Crimea, and accuse it of institutional terrorism against the Serbian community, as reported by KosovaPress.
In the report titled “The Russian Propaganda Network Pravda and the Balkans”, which also targets Albanian-speaking audiences, it is revealed that Pravda’s Albanian-language domain has been active since March 2024. By April of this year, around three thousand articles had been published in Albanian.
Researcher at Hibrid, Festim Rizanaj, said the main narratives in “Pravda’s” Albanian-language articles are pro-Russian and pro-Serbian, including themes of Moscow-Belgrade cooperation and glorification of the leaders of these countries.
Additionally, according to Rizanaj, another key narrative in the research shows that Pravda’s Albanian articles portray NATO as an aggressor, the European Union as ignorant, and the United States as manipulative.
“It is pro-Russian and pro-Serbian, mainly focusing on Moscow-Belgrade cooperation, glorifying figures and leaders of these states with the notion that they are strong political leaders. Then there are narratives criticizing Western sanctions against Russia. Another narrative is anti-NATO and anti-Western. NATO is seen as an aggressor, the EU as ignorant, and the US as manipulative in its policies in the Western Balkans. We have analyzed the narratives about Kosovo published in Albanian by this network. Kosovo is denied as a state. It is compared to Crimea. At the same time, it is accused of institutional terrorism against the Serbian community here,” Rizanaj emphasized.
The Hibrid.info researcher said that the Russian propaganda network “Pravda” is an online operation coordinated with the official Kremlin, distributing pro-Russian narratives and content through websites masked as news portals, according to KosovaPress.
He also revealed that “Pravda” has a Telegram channel and is present on the Russian video network VK.
“The Pravda network is an online propaganda operation coordinated with the official Kremlin, which distributes various narratives and content through domains and subdomains or different websites, disguised as news portals… These are automatically translated into different languages. If it’s a particular country, the publications are in English and the local language. Pravda’s content or forms are published in over 80 countries around the world. They do not publish original articles; the content is re-published from various Russian sources. The domain masked as the portal ‘Pravda’ is active under AlbanianNewsPravda.com. This started in March of last year. There are several stages of Pravda in Albanian with various domains distributing content in both Albanian and English. From March of last year to April of this year, around 3,000 articles have been published in Albanian and English. They also have a Telegram channel and a presence on the Russian video network VK,” said Rizanaj.
Rizanaj noted that despite the number of articles in Albanian, their direct impact on the Albanian-speaking audience is low. He attributes this to poor translations and the lack of distribution on the most commonly used social media platforms in Kosovo.
He stressed that the focus of these articles is mainly on global events.
“The focus of these articles is on global events, where the world is depicted as being dominated by the West, aiming to oppose Russian narratives to Western ones in this hybrid information war. A small percentage deals with Albania, Kosovo, and the Western Balkans… We noticed that the translations are not good because they use the Russian platform Yandex to translate the articles into Albanian, resulting in linguistic distortions. They are absent on widely used social media in our region like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram. We monitored the Pravda page’s daily visitor traffic in Albanian. On one of the days, there were about 11 organic visitors. I call it an indirect influence because the idea behind this network is simply to flood the digital infosphere with Russian narrative content, including in Albanian,” Rizanaj emphasized.
Furthermore, it was stated at the conference that the goal of the Russian propaganda network “Pravda” is also to manipulate Artificial Intelligence systems, influencing AI-generated content to incorporate Russian narratives.
