On March 10, 2025, a new episode of the program “Understandable Politics” was posted on the YouTube channel NEWS.BY with the clickbait headline “Enemies of Europe: how they eliminate unwanted politicians. Lawlessness and outrageous facts.”
In particular, it stated the following things:
Arrests of unwanted politicians, persecution of opponents, blocking of media and social networks. All those sins with which Europe has baselessly branded other countries for many years have actively flourished in the garden of paradise. Ordered detentions, assassination attempts, financing of destructive structures, election falsification. News feeds are full of outrageous facts. How Europe eliminates unwanted politicians. Only facts, conclusions are for you to make. First stop — Romania. There, they didn’t even bother to cover it up. Everything was done brazenly and crudely. Calin Georgescu — Romania’s most popular politician. His victory in the presidential election was simply stolen. Fascist, radical populist, racist and Kremlin agent. All this has been and is still actively written by the European press about the politician who has gained popularity. But the media attack did not prevent him from winning the first round of elections. Georgescu received almost 23% of the votes, becoming a real surprise for the country’s residents. Such popularity came to the politician thanks to reasonable political views and competent work in social networks. However, the Constitutional Court annulled the voting result due to external interference.
Our verdict based on the analyses conducted:
Verdict: Incorrect
Reasons:
- The thesis or statement is completely false: information from multiple sources or opinions of several experts in the specific field contradict it.
- The stated cause-and-effect relationships and connections clearly do not exist as claimed.
- When quoting, substantial parts are omitted, rearranged, altered, or incorrectly translated from a foreign language, resulting in a fundamental change in the meaning of what was said.
- The event occurred in substantially different aspects than stated.
Full video:
FIMI analysis: systemic disinformation
This segment represents a highly concentrated example of FIMI (Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference). It includes:
| Component | Examples in the text |
|---|---|
| Actor | Belarusian state TV (official media actor) |
| Narrative | The EU and USA are totalitarian dictatorships destroying “unwanted” politicians |
| Techniques | Cherry-picking, false equivalents, distortion of cause-and-effect relationships |
| Manipulation | Distortion, deformation, conjectures, hypothetical statements presented as fact |
| Intent | Undermining trust in EU institutions and neighboring democratic states |
🧨 Key disinformation narratives:
1. 🇪🇺 EU — dictatorship disguised as democracy
“Arrests, media blocking, election falsification — all this happens in the ‘citadel of freedom'”
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Goal: to discredit the EU as a source of legitimacy and norms.
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Manipulation: comparing individual legal cases with totalitarian practices.
2. 🇷🇴 “Martyr Georgescu” as a symbol of a “real politician”
“Puppet Iohannes against honest Georgescu”, “The elections were influenced by 25 thousand TikTok bots, not real people”
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Technique: hyperbolization, whitewashing a figure with an extremist background, distortion of facts.
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Manipulation: evidence of interference is ignored, a one-sided version is presented.
3. 🇸🇰 Fico as a “victim”, assassination attempt — proof of EU hostility
“Fico speaks for peace — and gets shot”
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Goal: to suggest that EU ideology is behind the assassination attempt.
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Manipulation: selective use of emotionally charged events (shot framing).
4. 🇲🇩 Sandu — “Soros puppet-dictator”
“Election falsification”, “Sandu’s dictatorship”, “closed 14 channels”, “30% inflation”
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Goal: to undermine trust in the pro-Western course.
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Manipulation: misrepresentation of statistics, fake quotes, shifting responsibility to opponents.
5. 🇷🇸 Serbia — “the last bastion” against the EU and NATO
“The EU demands that Belgrade submit. Kosovo is a channel for the EU’s black economy”
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Goal: to present the EU as an economically mafia-like structure.
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Manipulation: introduction of conspiracy theories, demonization of opponents, substitution of essence.
Fact-checking (main disinformation claims)
| Claim | Reality / Verification |
|---|---|
| Georgescu won the first round of presidential elections in Romania | ❌ Untrue. Georgescu did not participate in official elections. He is a marginal figure known for pro-Russian rhetoric. |
| 25,000 bots on TikTok are not proven | ❌ Fact. Romanian intelligence documents point to coordinated AI activity with foreign traces. |
| Maia Sandu falsified elections through votes from abroad | ❌ Manipulation. Diaspora voting is a legitimate part of elections, corresponding to international standards. |
| Fico was attacked because of his anti-European position | ❌ Speculation. The investigation does not link the attack to a political conspiracy. The suspect acted for personal motives. |
| In Serbia, women deputies were beaten by the opposition | ❌ Manipulation. Videos do not support the version presented in the segment. |
| Kosovo is a channel for EU drug trafficking | ❌ Conspiracy theory without factual basis. |
Manipulation techniques found in the text:
| Technique | Examples |
|---|---|
| Good vs. evil dichotomy | “EU is a dictatorship, the East is an island of freedom” |
| Mockery, irony | “That’s how simple it is. Europe now has a dictatorship” |
| Falsification of chronology | “Elections were canceled, although already recognized” — untrue, manipulates the legal procedure |
| Substitution of sources | Using Russian SVR as an “independent source” |
| Hypothetical as fact | “Possibly, allegedly, could have” — presented as proven Western interference |
| Distortion of terms | “Populism” is redefined as “left patriotism,” “dictatorship” as “security” |
Now let’s perform an analysis of disinformation narratives and semantic analysis:
Narrative that European elites suppress unwanted politicians using repressive methods.
distortion of facts
substitution of concepts
Assumption that Western countries and their institutions act with the aim of eliminating politicians who oppose their interests.
anonymous references
false conclusions
Portrayal of opponents as enemies threatening democracy and freedom.
distortion of facts
The video contains numerous manipulative techniques and distortions of facts aimed at creating an image of Europe as a repressive regime, which can undermine trust in democratic institutions and contribute to societal polarization.
problems of corruption and economic crisis
political repression in Europe
democracy and authoritarianism
negative
anger
anxiety
