Elections, Brexit, Crimea, Europe, Fascism, Genocide, Internet, Journalism, Migrants, NATO, Romania, Sanctions, Transnistria, Ukraine, the West or Zombie – fake or distorted narrations on these and other topics are regularly disseminated by the propaganda machinery.

In 2019, the project EUvsDisinfo of the East StratCom Group of the European External Action Service published The Alphabet Book of pro-Kremlin Disinformation that presents the most frequently encountered fake and distorted statements of pro-Kremlin propaganda. Beside the fake narratives there are described the real facts or methods by which politically affiliated media outlets try to distort the truth.

With the permission of the German Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, API has translated and completed the Alphabet Book with examples of disinformation on the realities in Moldova, disseminated by media outlets and communication platforms that support Kremlin’s official policy. This largely concerns the Moldova–EU Association Agreement, foreign trade, imports, dual citizenship, migrants etc. Hence, pro-Kremlin media often speculate with such disinformation that the Association Agreement is useless for Moldova (“The Agreement has destroyed Moldova’s relations with Russia,” “The European market does not need the Moldovan products”) or that “Moldova may be invaded by migrants” etc.

Petru Macovei, Executive Director of API, says, “The Alphabet Book of Pro-Kremlin Disinformation” will help media consumers understand the manipulation and disinformation techniques better: “Even if you are far beyond the age of first graders for whom the primary manual for learning how to write and read is the Alphabet Book, we suggest you look through and learn from a different kind of Alphabet Book – that of disinformation. It is important for you to read it, so that you do not become victims of propaganda.”

“The Alphabet Book of Pro-Kremlin Disinformation” is available online (in Romanian and in Russian) and will come out in hard copies in the following weeks.

The brochure has been published under the Campaign against Fake and Biased Information STOP FALS!, carried out by API in the past years.