Pravfond funded Russian propaganda in Europe and the Balkans, international research reveals

The whole investigation began when a reliable source approached the Danish national radio station DR and handed over 49,000 emails and more than 22,000 documents belonging to Pravfond. The materials were then distributed to 28 media outlets in different countries by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which painted a picture of Pravfond’s influence in individual countries. Experts say this is the tip of the iceberg for a well-organized influence campaign, a targeted Russian strategy to influence political opinion in European countries under the guise of “something else”

 

Author: Miroslava Simonovska 

 

The Russian government organization Pravfond is currently at the center of a major cross-border journalistic investigation by dozens of media outlets that have gained access to “leaked” internal emails and documents originating from the organization. The emails reveal that Pravfond (The Foundation for the Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad) has been financing tools for Russian influence in Europe, including in the Balkans in neighboring Bulgaria under the guise of “caring for Russian compatriots.” The journalistic investigation began when a reliable source approached the Danish national radio station DR and handed over 49,000 emails and more than 22,000 documents belonging to Pravfond. The materials were then distributed to 28 media outlets in different countries by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which painted a picture of Pravfond’s influence in individual countries.

Pravfond receives a large portion of its funding directly from the Russian state budget. Its official mission is to promote culture and provide legal assistance to Russian compatriots abroad, but Western intelligence services have long suspected that the fund is actually used for influence operations and to cover up intelligence activities.

Agreements for conferences and seminars to cultivate Russian ideology in Bulgaria and Greece

Through internal correspondence that recently fell into the hands of journalists, dozens of contracts related to organizations and media outlets that were financed from this very “address” have “surfaced.” Thus, in Greece, Pravfond financed the Dialogos Club (a Greek-Russian association aimed at forming a positive image of Russia in Greece). Dialogos held many conferences with Pravfond money, including a seminar in 2020 on “objectivity in journalism in the context of hybrid information warfare.”  The head of Dialogos mentioned “information and hybrid warfare waged against Russia” and “dirty fakes in the mainstream media” in internal messages .

As reported by journalists at BIRD.bg, intelligence agencies identify Pravfond as a tool of the Kremlin for conducting propaganda, disinformation, and other influence operations throughout Europe. In Bulgaria, the funding of this state agency of Russia was mainly intended for media outlets and organization of events that promote the policies and ideology of the Kremlin. Although Pravfond claims that its main activity is to provide legal assistance and lawyers to “persecuted compatriots”–Russians living abroad, still, the Bulgarian case showed that the grants awarded to Russian citizens for lawyers in this country were much more modest than those awarded for the promotion of the ideology of the Kremlin.

Bulgarian contractors of Pravfond received over $486,000 for the period 2014-2024. The funding is mainly for media outlets and the organization of events that promote the policies and ideology of the Kremlin. Grants for lawyers who provide legal assistance to Russian citizens are much more modest, and this should actually be the main activity of Pravfond, writes the investigative media outlet BIRD.bg from Bulgaria.

Beneficiaries of the Pravfond grants were paid via bank transfer in euros or dollars. BIRD.bg also reveals the names of the legal entities that signed the contracts with which they received the grants.

 

Legal aid for defendants abroad 

A major international investigation based on leaked internal documents and email communications has given journalists insights into how this Russian organization funded the legal defense of alleged spies, criminals, and propagandists in certain countries.

Among the recipients of its grants is a taxi driver convicted of espionage, a man convicted in the Czech Republic of leading an armed band during Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and an Australian activist who assaulted an elderly Ukraine supporter, OCCRP reports, adding that a leak of several dozen documents revealed that Pravfond had ties to Russian intelligence and had helped pay for the legal defense of notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout.

The research showed that the organization particularly focuses on the Baltic countries of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania.

Pravfond also funds propaganda and influence operations. It has paid to produce a Lithuanian history textbook that justifies the Soviet occupation of the country, funded pro-Russian Telegram channels, and paid for a Baltic-focused news site to publish hundreds of pro-Russian articles. Above all, its work underscores the Russian government’s view that Russians anywhere in the world can become instruments of power and influence, OCCRP found.

Representatives of several European intelligence agencies told OCCRP that they believe Pravfond is operating outside its stated mission, serving as an instrument of Russian intelligence services.

The foundation was created to fund influence operations under the cover of combating discrimination, said Marta Tuul, a spokesperson for KAPO, Estonia’s security service.

Cross-border research reveals that in Latvia, the organization supported taxi driver Sergejs Sidorovs–a man recruited via a Telegram channel to spy for Russia. When he was arrested by the country’s security services in 2023, he was accused of taking photos of military installations and homes under the Ukrainian flag and of plotting to bomb a drone testing site near Riga. Pravfond awarded him 5,000 euros for his legal defense. He was convicted of espionage and received a 7-year prison sentence, which he is now appealing.

Funding of Telegram channels with messages in favor of Russia

In June 2024, Danish media outlets, citing intelligence sources, reported that 30 internal documents from Moscow’s Pravfond showed that the organization paid for a large number of media outlets to disseminate content in Danish and other European languages ​​that experts described as “Russian propaganda.”

In this context, they mentioned the online media outlet EuroMore, which was funded by Pravfond in 2023. Internal reports from EuroMore obtained by Danish journalists showed that EuroMore exists as an alternative after the closure of international Russian-language platforms and actively helps RT and Sputnik spread the main stories on their websites.

According to the internal documents, the outlet was created to spread pro-Russian messages after the EU blocked major Russian state media outlets such as RT and Sputnik from broadcasting in Europe. This happened a month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine–in March 2022–to limit the flow of Russian propaganda and disinformation. Shortly after, EuroMore was launched, they wrote on June 2, 2024.

The secret documents also show that in Denmark, the news channel Velinformeret [Well-informed] on Telegram, which is aimed at a Danish audience, received 200,000 kroner from Pravfond. The channel is presented as a Danish news outlet that provides readers with “the whole truth.” Its owner, Zenia Grynberg, held a conference in 2023 on the topic of “the resurgence of fascism in Europe.” When she applied for funds from Pravfond, she stated in her application that the channel’s goal was to “inform civil society in Denmark about the consequences of the Danish government’s Russophobic policy.”

On Velinformeret this resulted in posts describing the war in Ukraine as “Russia’s self-defense against Nazism” and labeling Denmark as “NATO’s biggest mess.” 40 pieces of content were posted daily, and the channel had 1,500 followers.

Experts assess that this is the tip of the iceberg of a well-organized influence campaign, a targeted Russian strategy to influence the formation of political opinion in European countries under the guise of something else.

 

All comments and remarks regarding this and other Vistinomer articles, correction and clarification requests as well as suggestions for fact-checking politicians’ statements and political parties’ promises can be submitted by using this form