An Alpha Research survey conducted on the fourth day of the war in Ukraine shows a serious decline in Vladimir Putin’s approval rating in Bulgaria, down to 32%. But as the war unfolds, Russia’s hybrid warfare is entering a new, even more intensive stage which is inexorably impacting public attitudes in this country. At the moment, the pro-Kremlin propaganda is having a heyday on social media in this country. “Facebook is the dominant social media in Bulgaria and that is where the principal Russian theses are being spread most of all,” says Tihomir Bezlov from the Centre for the Study of Democracy. In his words there are a great many websites spreading Russian propaganda and fake news, and that is connected with Russian budgets. But are there mechanisms for tracking this financing?

“One of the problems is that that is something the Bulgarian institutions should, somehow, be disclosing, the institutions whose job it is to track foreign financing, and they should also be performing counter-intelligence functions. Regrettably, so far, I have not seen them do that. Why? Because it is believed that these institutions have also been infiltrated by Russian channels. The other reason is, I think, connected with competence levels. Unfortunately, the capacity level of Bulgaria’s counterintelligence institutions is very much debatable,” Tihomir Bezlov says.

As the war in Ukraine advances, anti-NATO and anti-European propaganda is becoming rampant on Bulgarian social media. Experts say that in the conditions of war such sentiments have a direct bearing on our national security. “Part of the problem is that our NATO and EU partners regard Bulgaria as a weak link, as a serious problem for their security, including as regards military information leakage in the conditions of a difficult situation entailing higher risks. So that the problem of trust in the country is a very serious one,” Tihomir Bezlov says.

The most important tool used in advanced democracies is to restrict publications spreading false information on social media. But unlike the West European countries and USA, there is no institution in Bulgaria, or the “toolbox” needed to combat this kind of disinformation and propaganda. The most influential platforms such as Facebook and YouTube have allocated practically no resources for Bulgaria. The reason is that the market is very small and there are no authorized Bulgarian institutions they can work with. However, Tihomir Bezlov says there is a way around this problem:

“The institutions, with the help of the corporations that own the major social networks included, ought to develop Bulgarian instruments for bringing fake news and fact manipulation to light. But that is a major effort. At the moment, Russian propaganda is countered in a spontaneous, purely human way, i.e. people are seeing pictures of destruction from cities and the thousands of people killed and are reacting.”

According to Tihomir Bezlov, there are many examples in Bulgaria of public figures, including popular politicians, using their Facebook profiles to push Russia’s propaganda. On their part, Russian sources release content which is then spread across social media by trolls, by Bulgarian media outlets, by various Bulgarian Facebook groups etc. The internet also abounds in what are known as “useful idiots”. “But unlike the so-called “agents of influence” who get paid to sway public opinion in favour of Russia, there is no need to spend anything on the “useful idiots”, they work out of their own beliefs,” the analyst from the Centre for the Study of Democracy explains.

Photos: BGNES, Bixabay