Russian Aggression against Ukraine as the Accelerator in the Systemic Struggle against Disinformation in Czechia

Abstract

In the last decade Czechia’s foreign and security policies were destabilised by the activities of external actors, with Russia in the leading role, and also by internal ac- tors who followed the Russian and pro-Kremlin propaganda and disinformation campaigns and/or actively participated in such subversive activities. After 2015, within the set of crises and their securitisation, a disinformation network was developed in Czechia using social media and so-called ‘alternative online media’ for the dissemination of disinformation, mis- information, fake news and chain mails to spread these campaigns. As leading persons in the executive belonged to the disinformers, the government was not able to develop work- ing strategies against the disinformation campaigns as the new hybrid threat until 2021. At the end of 2021, the new Czech government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala launched a new strategy regarding hybrid threats which contained disinformation. The one-year plan to establish a systemic platform for the struggle against such threats was challenged by Russian aggression against Ukraine. In this article, we analyse the development of the security eco-system in Czechia against these hybrid threats, specifically the acceleration and intensification of this activity after 24 February 2022.