Russian disinformation in the Visegrad region: results of a comparative study
Date: 1 June 2026, 09:30-14:30
Location: Corvinus University of Budapest, Building E, Auditorium III.
Language of the event: English
Russia’s disinformation activities have been in the focus of international research since the illegal occupation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and particularly since the beginning of the full-scale war in 2022. Since 2023 both the European Union and NATO have been calling the phenomenon as Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference, in short: FIMI. Several international research projects have been dedicated to various aspects of the problem.
The present research was conducted at Corvinus University of Budapest in the framework of an International Visegrad Fund project intended to study a novel aspect of Russian FIMI. The objective has been to prove and verify that Russian FIMI in the Visegrad region has been working in a coordinated way also between various countries. By using the full-scale war in Ukraine as an example, the research studied how certain events (such as the bombing of the maternity ward in Mariupol or the Bucha massacre) have been framed by Russia’s FIMI apparatus in the four Visegrad countries. The objective has been to prove that there is a unified, central coordination behind the Russian FIMI conducted in the Visegrad region.
The emphasis was put not on the individual Russian FIMI narratives – as these have been known long ago -, but on whether these narratives appear in the Visegrad countries in the same way, same time and frequency. If so, meaning that Russian disinformation channels have been using the same narratives in the same order in all four Visegrad countries, this would prove the existence of a central, all-regional coordination behind Russian FIMI against Central Europe.
The research has been conducted with the support of the International Visegrad Fund, in the framework of the “The V4 Region and the War in Ukraine: Lessons in Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference” project. The project leader is Dr. Andras Racz, Associate Professor of the Institute of Global Studies of the Corvinus University Budapest.
The program of the event:
09:30 – 10:00 Registration
10:00 – 11:40 Panel 1: Russian disinformation in the Visegrad Region
Participants:
- Anna Kyczinska, Res Publica Foundation, Warsaw
- Alexandra Nosková, Prague Security Studies Institute, Prague
- Domician Zahorjan, NEST Institute, Bratislava
- András Rácz, Corvinus University Budapest, Budapest
11:40 – 12:00 Coffee break
12:00 – 13:20 Panel 2: Evidence of centralized Russian disinformation activities: presentation of project results
Participants:
- András Rácz, Corvinus University Budapest, Budapest
- Zsolt Lázár, IT specialist
13:20 – 13:30 Wrap-up
13:30 – 14:30 Lunch
Please register using this link: Registration
You can follow the event live on this link: https://fb.me/e/5KZ8Cy8uE