00:03WELCOME TO EURONEWS FAKTAKING SHOW, THE CUBE!
00:06As Armenia heads towards parliamentary elections in early June,
00:09disinformation campaigns linked to pro-Kremlin actors
00:12have dedicated substantial effort to sway the vote.
00:16One of the claims suggested that there could be a possible war
00:18between Armenia and Russia
00:20should candidate and current prime minister Nikol Pashinyan win the vote.
00:24The campaign began in early March
00:26and among the fabricated clips, 12 falsely claimed that Pashinyan
00:29and French President Emmanuel Macron had agreed a secret deal,
00:33French support in the elections,
00:35in exchange for Armenia launching a war against Russia after a victory.
00:39On the 11th of May, a video falsely claimed that Pashinyan's press secretary
00:43had confirmed the presence of NATO instructors in Armenia
00:46and that following the parliamentary elections,
00:49he would provoke a military conflict with Russia.
00:51But why is Armenia being targeted by pro-Kremlin bots?
00:54The campaign has arisen against a backdrop of deepening EU-Armenia relations.
00:59In early May, the country hosted the first EU-Armenia summit
01:03where European Council President Antonio Costa
01:05reaffirmed the EU's commitment to strengthening ties with Yervan.
01:10In 2025, Armenia's parliament also adopted a law launching the EU accession process.
01:15Two months after the campaign began and just days after the summit,
01:20Russian President Vladimir Putin drew a comparison between Armenia and Ukraine,
01:24stating that Armenia may experience similar consequences as Ukraine did following in September to join the EU.
01:30In total, 343 fake videos related to Armenia and Pashinyan were identified as circulating in early May.
01:39The pro-Kremlin Matryoshka network, which researchers say organized this campaign,
01:43has been active in other elections such as in Poland, Germany and the US.
01:48But according to experts, the scale of this campaign is second only to that scene during Moldova's 2025 election.
01:57The 0834 will be met on the early May.
01:59The industry will be a broad activity of
01:59the counterproductive 2020.
02:00The US.
02:00The US.
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