Report: Russia-linked Accounts Spread Anti-migrant Posts Online

A counter-disinformation research group has published an analysis showing that accounts linked to Russia helped spread far-right narratives online during a recent migration crisis in Ceuta.

According to the report, the accounts are connected to the Pravda network, a group of websites widely believed to be tied to Russian influence operations.

The analysis focused on the period following a mass arrival of migrants in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the coast of North Africa.

The sudden influx of people sparked a political and humanitarian crisis, prompting criticism from the European Union of Spain's response.

Researchers found that accounts with links to the Russian military played a role in amplifying far-right messages related to the events.

In total, the report estimates that these messages reached more than 500,000 people in the days following the crisis.

The group behind the study specialises in tracking disinformation, defined as false or misleading information spread deliberately, often for political purposes.

Their findings suggest a coordinated effort to exploit the migration crisis for propaganda purposes, though the exact extent of the coordination remains unclear.

The report adds to a growing body of evidence about Russian-linked networks attempting to influence political debates across Europe, particularly on divisive issues such as migration.

Migration has become an increasingly contentious topic in Spanish and wider European politics, with the EU holding meetings in recent months to address the fallout from the Ceuta crisis.

The analysis does not claim that the Russian-linked accounts created the migration crisis itself, but rather that they sought to exploit it to spread a particular political narrative.

Neither the Spanish government nor EU officials have issued a formal response to the specific findings of the report at this stage.

Experts studying online influence campaigns say identifying such networks is an important step in understanding how foreign actors attempt to shape public opinion during politically sensitive events.

The full details of the methodology used by the counter-disinformation group have not been disclosed in the summary of the findings.