Russia conducted a wide range of hybrid operations against the Czech Republic in the first half of this year with the aim of undermining confidence in the state, according to the six-monthly report on extremism published by the Interior Ministry yesterday.
The propaganda was aimed at making people feel that the Russian regime was a healthy alternative, the report said. It concluded that the Czech extremist and xenophobic populist scene has changed significantly, and that Russian security forces have obtained a solid and easily influenced base in the Czech Republic to spread their influence.
“Russia has continuously carried out hybrid operations against the Czech Republic, and many institutions have repeatedly been the target of cyberattacks,” said Interior Minister Vit Rakusan (STAN). “When I add to this the fact that police officers arrested a Colombian suspected of arson on the orders of Russian security forces, it is clear that Russia is attacking us by all possible means.”
In early June, police detained the suspected arsonist in the garage of the Prague Transport Company in Prague 9, and accused him of a terrorist attack.
The report also states that past ideological dogmas and divisions can no longer be applied to the Czech extremist scene; previous key topics concerning the Czech Republic are losing their importance and are being replaced by topics with international resonance. According to the ministry, it is Kremlin propaganda that has an influence on determining narratives.
The hateful rhetoric, however, is only one component of the pro-Russian propaganda. The priority goal is no longer to stir up negative emotions against minorities, but to convey narratives that are consistent with the “Kremlin’s view of the world,” according to the report.
However, it is also still possible to see anti-migrant, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic or anti-Ukrainian content in the “quasi-media” coverage. According to the report, the authors of this content use certain patterns in its creation, which they supplement with “different variables.”
“If the quasi-media scene starts to exploit the possibilities of artificial intelligence and automatically generated content, it will be able to increase its production many more times and overwhelm the media space,” warn the authors of the report.
The “anti-system movement” retained its position on the extremist scene this year, but suffered from fragmentation, a lack of vision, and the short “lifespan” of its main leaders. Its supporters continue to promote the Russian view of the war in Ukraine, and some right-wing extremists have also become supporters of the Kremlin regime. Only anarchists and some neo-Nazi activists remain faithful to their former ideological grounds, the Interior Ministry’s report points out.
The report notes that simple racist attacks have traditionally occurred primarily in the environment of Czech football.
More and more politicians and activists who do not fit into the traditional extremist and xenophobic-populist spectrum have begun to use nationalism, especially as a tool to win voters, and they also resort to xenophobic acronyms, which was evident in the results of the European Parliament elections, the Interior Ministry notes in its report.
