- Did Russia use statements from these BSW deputies for its propaganda?
Sevim Dagdelen makes no secret of what she considers Europe's biggest security problem: NATO. It's almost always the focus of her website's articles. In July, the MP of the Left Party (BSW) posted an interview with the Chinese "Global Times" on her website, which is under the auspices of the Communist Party. She told the newspaper: "The German government must wage a social war against its own population to meet the demands of the USA, supporting a corrupt Ukraine." In another article, she demands bluntly: "Peace instead of NATO!"
The war against Ukraine shook the worldview of many pacifists. Not that of Sevim Dagdelen, who was previously a long-standing MP for the Left Party. After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, she opposed sanctions against Russia. Even in December 2023, after Putin's war had already claimed thousands of lives, she did so again.
Russian bots apparently spread content from BSW MP
It's therefore not surprising that some in Moscow might appreciate Dagdelen's positions. What was not known until now, however, is that Russian bot networks apparently spread the MP's content in social media as part of a large-scale disinformation campaign, as revealed by findings from the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution this week.
Cyber investigators from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution managed to observe Russian agents for over 14 months as they pumped disinformation into Germany via Facebook or X. The partly automatically controlled accounts posted fake images of German news sites, such as "Der Spiegel" or "Die Welt". The articles then stated that boycotting Russia was pointless, supporting Ukraine only harmed Germans. The posts reached around 750,000 people.
But the Russian bots didn't just spread fake content, an analysis of Russian servers showed. The goal, according to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, was to "increase the reach of individual content because it apparently fits into the Russian narrative". This included posts on Dagdelen's site.
Sevim Dagdelen calls analysis "absurd"
The MP rejects the Office for the Protection of the Constitution's analysis as "absurd". "It's obvious that the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution suspects Russian propaganda in any kind of critical reporting about NATO or US missile deployment in Germany," Dagdelen told stern. "Defaming critical content as part of Russian campaigns does not serve to protect liberal values, but endangers them and constitutes an attack on press and media freedom."
This is also shown by the fact that, according to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, in addition to her own site, "highly respectable US newspapers" such as the left-liberal "The Nation" or the parliamentary newspaper "The Hill" were also used for the Russian campaign, as well as the German weekly "Der Freitag" and public broadcasters.
The Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution explains this as follows: The bots shared content from serious media whenever it was about Germany's alleged economic decline, the many crises of the federal government, or Ukrainian refugees. All of this fits into the Russian narrative.
The cyber investigators found further evidence that the posts originated from Russia: the perpetrators were particularly active during Russian business hours, programmed the servers using Cyrillic keyboards, and used Russian IP addresses. On May 9th, however, the controlled social media accounts remained suspiciously quiet. It was the Russian holiday celebrating victory over Nazi Germany, apparently the operators had the day off.
The Commission has expressed concerns about the Russian bots spreading Dagdelen's content, suggesting that it was part of a larger disinformation campaign to increase the reach of critical reporting against NATO and US missile deployment in Germany. However, Dagdelen vehemently denies these allegations, calling the analysis by the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution "absurd" and claiming that it is an attack on press and media freedom.
