Ahead of terrorism and violent radicalization, espionage and interference from abroad or irregular migratory flows, the Security Council has for the first time placed disinformation campaigns – due to their degree of probability and level of impact – as the first risk and threat to national security. “In view of the intense electoral calendar of 2024”, the new report approved yesterday reflects the great concern about these campaigns that have no other intention than to “destabilize and polarize society, in addition to undermining its confidence in the institutions.”
The Department of Homeland Security – which advises the Presidency of the Government on this matter – directly points to Russia as the largest factory of disinformation campaigns. “It has manipulated Spain’s support for Ukraine to launch disinformation campaigns aimed at introducing doubts about Spain’s membership in NATO into the public debate,” the annual report states.
As detected by National Security, Russia has recently been focusing on spreading “a distorted image” of migration and the situation in Ceuta and Melilla. At a time of electoral cycles, in which the immigration issue is taking center stage, the legions of Russian bots have “opportunistically” found an enormous vein to divide society. Although the report does not specify specific cases, the department assures that during the 2023 electoral processes – regional and municipal in May and general in July – “a growing diffusion” of campaigns that tried to create distrust in said processes and in the democratic system. This is not a particularity of Spain, since this phenomenon is also occurring in surrounding countries.
With the war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Gaza Strip as a backdrop, an increase in “anti-Spanish narratives” has been identified in multilateral forums such as within the United Nations. National Security has confirmed that on October 12, social networks – mainly TikTok – were used “to broadcast messages contrary to Spain and its history.” Some content that was amplified by bots, “which shows a coordinated strategy.”
Another common objective of disinformation campaigns is military and civilian missions deployed abroad. The annual report ensures that the contingents of the armed forces abroad are suffering from these campaigns. Also the actions to help Ukraine against the Russian invasion. Moscow continues to extrapolate this rhetoric to countries in the “Global South,” such as Africa, where the Kremlin seeks to present itself as “a reliable ally, displace Western influence and isolate the European Union bloc from the rest of the international community.”
The report also focuses on the “serious threat” that hostile intelligence services continue to pose. After the start of the war in Ukraine, the Government expelled 27 Russian diplomats from Spain. An action that left Moscow’s espionage capacity in Spain to a minimum – taking the activity index from 137 in 2021 to 80 in 2022. However, in 2023 there was a resurgence of this type of interference. Russian spies, according to the report, continue to carry out intelligence activities in Spain aimed at gathering information about the war in Ukraine.
Given the scarce presence of Russian intelligence officers and the difficulty in accrediting new ones, Russia is using other formulas to act, such as traveling spies or greater pressure on Spanish diplomats abroad, especially in Latin America, Africa or Asia.
