Germany’s disinformation battleground: how Telegram networks shape EU narratives

Germany’s disinformation battleground: how Telegram networks shape EU narratives

Olha Konsevych

Alina Lipp, a German national, now living in Russia, presents herself as an independent journalist and influencer. In reality, her Telegram channel “Neues aus Russland” – with more than 175,000 subscribers – has become one of the largest German-language sources of pro-Kremlin propaganda in Europe.

In May 2025, the European Union placed Lipp under sanctions for “promoting pro-Kremlin disinformation and supporting the Russian war effort.” Investigations by Kharon and EU intelligence revealed that she co-founded the NGO, linked to Russian state media structures, and received transfers from a company financed by TV Novosti, the parent of RT.

Her case illustrates how Telegram has evolved from a messaging app into a digital ecosystem of influence — where Russian propaganda, funding, and recruitment intersect.

Recently Euronews published an investigation revealing that Russian intelligence services use Telegram to recruit “one-time agents.” These individuals — often approached online with small offers of payment — are hired to carry out petty acts of sabotage: taking photos of military sites, vandalising infrastructure, or spraying provocative graffiti.

“Telegram users become targets for Russian intelligence,” said Ukrainian cybersecurity expert Kostiantyn Korsun in an interview. “They can track conversations, identify users and administrators by their IDs, and monitor which channels they visit. That automatically creates detailed profiles of millions.”

From disinformation to recruitment

Once contact is made, the process unfolds quietly. According to the report, Russian operatives scan Telegram for users who show sympathy for pro-Kremlin narratives.

With the help of specialized software, thousands of public channels are monitored simultaneously. Such recruitment rarely looks like espionage. The offers are subtle: a request to send a photo of a train depot, to paste stickers on a wall, or to post a message under a false name. Payment is small — often digital, anonymous, and deniable.

But Western intelligence services warn that these “micro-tasks” are part of a broader campaign to destabilize European security. Even passive participation in such Telegram communities, experts note, can turn ordinary users into targets.

Telegram is not classified as a very large online platform (VLOP) under the Digital Services Act (DSA), despite independent research suggesting that it has more than 45 million users in the EU – a user threshold that means it should be designated as a VLOP.

Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) can monitor public channels and document posts, but the picture changes once communication moves into private or encrypted chats. Legal and technical barriers prevent investigators from tracing conversations — particularly on Telegram, whose privacy structure makes infiltration difficult.

Beyond Alina Lipp, whose media persona merges ideology and influence, a growing cluster of German-language networks — including InfoDefenseDEUTSCH, Übersicht Ukraine / Analytik & News, and UKR LEAKS_de — has turned Telegram into a multi-layered propaganda infrastructure that adapts, translates, and amplifies Kremlin narratives across Europe.

InfoDefenseDEUTSCH: a multilingual amplifier

The InfoDefense network is one of the most organized propaganda systems operating in Europe. Its German-language branch, InfoDefenseDEUTSCH, now counts more than 52,000 subscribers, and serves as a hub within a broader constellation of interconnected channels.

The network operates across multiple languages — Italian, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Romanian, Polish, and Russian — forming an interlinked architecture of translation and repetition. Combined, its reach exceeds 100,000 subscribers, making it one of the most extensive Russian-aligned ecosystems on Telegram.

Posts are synchronized across versions within hours. Narratives repeat in near-identical form: economic collapse in the West, refugees draining social welfare, NATO aggression, Russia defending traditional values.

Übersicht Ukraine / Analytik & News

Originally presenting itself as an analytical outlet, Übersicht Ukraine rebranded in 2024 as Analytik & News, retaining its audience while deepening ties with overtly pro-Kremlin media.

It regularly amplifies content from InfraRot Medien — a network founded by former RT DE employees — and from Russländer & Friends, a group addressing the Russian-speaking diaspora in Germany.

Another associated account, Stimme aus Russland, run by an Austrian commentator, frequently republishes InfoDefenseDEUTSCH materials.

Together, these channels form a cross-referencing ecosystem that blurs origin and authorship, recycling the same narratives through different linguistic and social filters.

UKR LEAKS_de: a propaganda franchise

The UKR LEAKS network, created by Vasily Prozorov, a former officer of Ukraine’s Security Service who defected to Russia, functions like a digital franchise. Its main Russian-language channel (111,000 followers) has spin-offs in English, Serbian, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Arabic, and German.

All versions distribute the same core messages — Ukrainian corruption, Western hypocrisy, moral decline of Europe. The German edition, UKR LEAKS_de, has become a consistent amplifier of narratives designed for Western audiences.

“Telegram isn’t just a messaging platform”

As Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRL) experts noted in an exclusive comment for our broader investigation, since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, no platform has expanded its role in helping the outside world to understand the Russian perspective on the war more than Telegram.

“Telegram isn’t just a messaging platform — it’s more. Its design and content moderation policies cater perfectly to groups banned or restricted elsewhere. Amid declining trust in mainstream media, Telegram emerges as a primary platform for news consumption alternatives. It hosts not only pro-Kremlin groups but also conspiracy theorists, militant organizations, and far-right groups worldwide. While criminal narratives exist on other platforms, Telegram’s tactics differ significantly. They create multiple channels, often duplicates for precaution, forming echo chambers for diverse audiences,” said Sayyara Mammadova, a research associate at the DFRLab.

Her colleague, Eto Buziashvili, stated that the Kremlin has divided its target audience into four audiences.

The first one is the domestic Russian audience, “where the Kremlin tried to maintain the support for the war”. “For example, one of the prominent narratives that did not start spreading in 2022, but back then in 2014, that Ukrainians are Nazis and Russia should be denazifying Ukraine or demilitarising Ukraine,”  Eto Buziashvili believes.

Then the second audience is Ukrainian one, where “Russia tries to demoralize Ukrainians“.

“And here, for example, the prominent narratives which was spread in the first three days of the war, of the full-scale war, was that Zelensky and the administration have fled Kyiv and Ukrainians are left without any political and military leadership and that’s why basically they should surrender,” the researcher exposed.

The third audience for the Kremlin is the West, “so-called democratic West, where the Kremlin tried and is trying to decrease support for Ukraine as well as to sow division among those countries”.

“One of the main narratives here targeting the West and, more importantly, the NATO countries was that the war, which Russia started back in 2014, was started by NATO. And the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia, is NATO’s fault,” Eto Buziashvili shared.

And the last group of narratives that the Kremlin is trying to target Ukraine with is “to portray it as a failed state and a corrupt state”.

Olha Konsevych: Journalist, researcher | Vital Voices | GMF | WZB Berlin | Max Planck Society alumna || Mahabahu Correspondent

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