A fake video, in which the elected President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, allegedly declares the need for Prague to enter the war with Moscow, was created and distributed by the Russian side in order to prevent his re-election.
This is stated in statement Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic, which quotes “European Truth”.
The agency on Thursday released an analysis of disinformation and manipulation during the country’s January 2023 presidential election. Most often, according to the calculations of the Czech Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the first round of elections, attacks were directed against Pavel, his main rival Andrei Babiš and Danusha Nerudova, who came in third.
At the same time, after the first round, the attacks on Babis disappeared, and against Pavel “a wide and massive wave of online attacks rose across the entire quasi-media ecosystem,” according to an analysis by the Czech law enforcement agency.
“In this context, it is worth noting that before the second round of elections, a widely circulated and manipulatively edited video appeared in which Pavel allegedly stated that the Czech Republic should go to war with the Russian Federation, although in fact he never publicly stated this,” – remind in the Czech Ministry of Internal Affairs.
They indicate that the video was first published by the Telegram account neČT24, which belongs to the Russian propaganda media Sputnik, included in the sanctions list of the European Union.
“Thus, it can be concluded that in the context of the presidential elections in the Czech Republic in 2023, disinformation activities of a foreign state were recorded, aimed at harming one of the candidates,” the message says.
Among other manipulations by the Czech Interior Ministry aimed at discrediting the legitimacy of the elections, it noted the allegation of allegedly manipulative registration of candidates and the allegation that the elections were allegedly influenced from outside.
Petr Pavel will take the oath and become President of the Czech Republic on March 9, 2023, replacing Miloš Zemanwho was on it for two terms – ten years.
The last days before the second round were remembered by Babiš’s statement that he was stopping contacts with voters as part of the presidential campaign due to death threats, as well as by a provocation against Pavel – unknown people launched disinformation that the candidate had allegedly died, creating a fake website and mailing list for this.
