The primary actors of hybrid threats, which have grown more intense and dangerous in recent years, are believed to be Russian and Chinese entities. This was stated during the “Balkan Disinfo 2025” conference hosted by The Geopost in Pristina, which is being attended by specialists in the field from around the globe.
According to Finnish diplomat Tapio Pysalo, Russia and China are using these hybrid threats and misinformation to sow doubt and anxiety as well as division inside the EU and NATO. According to the Finnish ambassador, these two nations are working together to disseminate false information through the use of artificial intelligence, local media reported.
“The intensity and dangerousness of hybrid threats have been increasing in recent years, especially considering Russia and the People’s Republic of China as the main threat actors. Their objective above all is to undermine our partnerships by sowing divisions within the EU and NATO, by hindering the expansion of NATO, especially the EU in the Western Balkans, by undermining democratic institutions including the credibility of elections, by undermining public trust and polarizing our societies, and by affecting the stability of our society. The goal is to sow uncertainty and fear by undermining public trust and weakening the support we give Ukraine. I think this can also be applied to disinformation trends, and China and Russia have increased their operations in Europe and the US. Russia has invested heavily in disinformation,” he said.
Political leaders are disseminating the most disinformation, according to Matarina Klingova of GLOBSEC in Slovakia. Matarina Klingova asserts that misleading narratives propagate through sponsored content on social media.
“Disinformation is being spread by our political leaders; it’s not something you can follow on a website or on Facebook and Twitter channels. It’s now rising; it’s being presented by our political leadership. You turn on the TV or any political debate before the elections and after the elections, and there you find a polarizing narrative that is presented by different stakeholders. Next, there are campaigns aimed at defaming various government organizations, journalists, and even disinformation from our allies in the EU and NATO institutions. Then you have domestic actors who spread narratives that undermine the war in Ukraine or that affect any assistance from NATO and the EU,” she stressed.
Head of the Western Balkans Task Force within the Strategic Division of the European External Action Service in Brussels, Alen Musaefendic, stated that as a division in the Western Balkans, they have been working against disinformation since 2018.
He emphasizes that the leaders of the Western Balkans have pledged to work on combating FIMI, while adding that combating disinformation has become part of the process of joining the EU. Many times, all of the political leaders of the Balkans have promised to do more to fight FIMI and disinformation. For example, at the Western Balkans Summit in Tirana in 2002, point 25 of the conclusions said, “We pledge to fight FIMI [disinformation, manipulation, and interference in information by foreign actors], and this also applies to the leaders of the EU and the Western Balkans. Since 2023, the EU’s addressing process includes adopting FIMI. This innovation requires the candidate countries, which are the majority of Western Balkan countries, to do more to limit FIMI’s spread. We proactively position ourselves as EU and pro-EU so that threat actors cannot sow false narratives,” he stressed.
Consultant specializing in new challenges to election integrity, Ben Graham, emphasized that in the United Kingdom, where he comes from, there is a strengthening of pro-Russian narratives from networks of the People’s Republic of China.
But, he added that the numerous electoral processes that marked the past year have created some positive aspects for combating disinformation more effectively.
“We see a greater strategic alignment with our adversaries; we see an increase or strengthening of pro-Russian narratives from the networks of the People’s Republic of China, and it is important that we work together to counter them. Secondly, we think that we have not yet caught up. It seems that we are stuck in a fortress that is in a state of siege, and we tend to raise our shields, but maybe it helps us there and then, but it does not help us to win on the territory in terms of fighting information manipulation. We also need to look at the psychological aspects of why people believe this disinformation and how we can convince them. I think we need to work more eloquently in countering it,” he stressed.
According to Benjamin Schultz, a U.S. researcher and expert in digital intelligence, particularly in the areas of manipulation campaigns and foreign information impact, an attack on researchers is occurring as a result of executive orders issued by the newly elected U.S. president. He claims that society in the US has become extremely divided.
“The US is now trying to bend its approach toward Europe, but once again it seems problematic in terms of international cooperation and in the face of these hybrid threats, on the one hand from Iran, Russia, China, and others. I’m trying not to sound like a politician, but disinformation is a dirty political word because scientific grants have now been withdrawn that have nothing to do with the party; they have been basic works in terms of social impact, which is public health, and AI—everything that almost barely mentions the words disinformation, women, or bias. And the grants have now been withdrawn only on the basis of these; now we are in a place where cooperation is being attacked in an institutionalist way and all aspects of scientific research are being made like a black sheep,” Schultz said.
