WORLD ROUNDUPRussian Attacks on Europe Double in Lead up to Elections, Olympics | India Just Showed the World How to Fight an Authoritarian on the Rise | Britain’s Revival Must Start with the BBC, and more
· Russian Attacks on Europe Double in Lead up to Elections, Olympics
Russian espionage, disruption, disinformation, and real-world interference in Europe is ramping up in the lead-up to European Union elections and the Paris Olympics
· Brussels Blames Russian Meddling for Expected Swing to the Right
Kremlin propaganda deemed responsible for a likely surge in support for populists at the European parliamentary elections this weekend
· Europeans Detail Iran’s Nuclear Violations in Diplomatic Gambit
The effort by Britain, France and Germanywas also visible at the IAEA, where they successfully pushed a resolution critical of Iran despite U.S. reservations
· The Party That Could Shake Up German Politics
A new so-called left-conservative party seeks a foothold in the European Parliament elections
· Britain’s Revival Must Start with the BBC
The country’s next government needs to reverse its decline, beginning with its central source of information
· India Just Showed the World How to Fight an Authoritarian on the Rise
Three big lessons from Narendra Modi’s shocking underperformance in the 2024 election
Russian Attacks on Europe Double in Lead up to Elections, Olympics (Tom Uren, Lawfare)
Russian espionage, disruption, disinformation, and real-world interference in Europe is ramping up in the lead-up to European Union elections and the Paris Olympics. Juhan Lepassaar, the head of the EU’s cybersecurity agency ENISA, last week told the Associated Press that disruptive attacks against European infrastructure had doubled in recent months.
“This is part of the Russian war of aggression, which they fight physically in Ukraine, but digitally also across Europe,” Lepassaar said.
Many of these attacks have been linked to Russia-backed groups and some targeted election-related services, Lepassaar said. He said Russia often first attempted new techniques in Ukraine before rolling them out across the EU.
Over the weekend, Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the country’s leading opposition party, was hit by what the Interior Ministry described as a “serious cyber attack.” The ministry did not disclose details but said the attack looked like it was carried out by a “very professional actor.” This attack could have been for intelligence collection rather than disruption, but the CDU shut down parts of its network as a precautionary measure. The incident has not been attributed to Russia, but in May the German government attributed a breach of the Social Democratic Party last year to APT28 aka Fancy Bear, part of the GRU, Russian military intelligence. On that occasion, the German government’s statement was backed by both the Czech government and Poland’s CERT, which both stated that entities in their respective countries had been targeted by the same group.
Russia is also going hard on cyber campaigns that enable disinformation and propaganda.
Brussels Blames Russian Meddling for Expected Swing to the Right (Bruno Waterfield, The Times)
Brussels is ready to blame Russian propaganda aimed at undermining the European Union for an expected surge in support for populists and nationalists in elections across Europe this weekend.
Final polls indicate that hard-right and Eurosceptic parties, such as Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France, will make big gains in elections to the European parliament.
Campaigning has been marked, according to Brussels officials, by a high level of “disinformation”, particularly on social media channels, where the radical right has large audiences. (Cont.)
