Dutch PM set to become new Nato chief; Germany forms unit to block Russian disinformation

Germany launched a task force to counter disinformation campaigns by countries including Russia that the government in Berlin says are designed to undermine democracy and sow discord.

Ukrainians’ opposition to concessions in talks with Russia has diminished in the last two years, though most people believe that Volodymyr Zelensky should remain president until the end of martial law, a new poll shows.

Dutch PM closes in on top Nato job after Hungary, Slovakia support

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is on the verge of becoming the Nato military alliance’s next head after securing the endorsement of Hungary and Slovakia.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said he now supported Rutte’s bid as long as the Dutch premier agreed to respect a deal the Hungarian leader made with North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg last week to give his nation an opt-out from the alliance’s commitments to Ukraine.

“In light of his pledge, Hungary is ready to support PM Rutte’s bid for Nato Secretary-General,” Orbán said on X on Tuesday, linking a letter Rutte sent him the same day.

The pair had met in Brussels on Monday on the sidelines of a European Union summit to overcome past differences that had caused Orbán to oppose Rutte’s candidacy. Slovak President Peter Pellegrini, who also spoke in the Belgian capital, said his nation would back the outgoing Dutch leader, in exchange for assurances that Nato would protect Slovak airspace following the handover of military equipment to Ukraine.

Rutte needs to secure unanimous support among Nato’s 32 members to succeed Stoltenberg, whose mandate expires in October. Allies have been hoping to settle on a next secretary-general by the time of Nato leaders’ summit in Washington in July. The decision comes at a critical time with anxiety in Europe about the potential return of former US president Donald Trump — an outspoken critic of the organisation.

The backing of Hungary and Slovakia left Romania — which is fielding its own candidate for Nato’s top job, President Klaus Iohannis — as the only nation that has yet to formally back the Dutch leader, though it’s expected to do so.

Romanian officials in April said the nation would not block the election of the next Nato chief, as long as Rutte makes clear commitments to eastern European security priorities and progress is made on better regional representation inside the alliance.

Germany forms unit to thwart alleged Russian disinformation

Germany launched a task force to counter disinformation campaigns by countries including Russia that the government in Berlin says are designed to undermine democracy and sow discord.

With the creation of the new unit, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition is taking the next step in implementing conclusions from its inaugural national security strategy published last year, which singled out the Kremlin as the principal menace to Germany’s security.

The task force, a joint initiative of the interior, foreign and justice ministries, will start its work with 10 dedicated analysts and the number of staff is set to double to 20 charged with monitoring and analysis.

The focus will be on detecting and debunking disinformation operations on social media, including those allegedly sponsored by the Kremlin. One example is the “Doppelganger” campaign, which generated more than a million posts on X from tens of thousands of fake accounts within a few weeks, according to the German government.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the security situation in Germany “remains tense”, due both to the “brutal Russian war of aggression against Ukraine” and “the terrible escalations in the Middle East”.

“The threat to our democracy from espionage, sabotage, disinformation and cyber attacks has reached a new dimension,” Faeser said on Tuesday as she presented the latest annual report from Germany’s domestic intelligence agency.

As well as an increase in both right- and left-wing extremist criminal offences, there was also a big jump in crimes motivated by anti-Semitism, according to the report.

“We must break the spiral in which escalations in the Middle East lead to even more repugnant hatred of Jews in our country,” Faeser said.

Another aim of the new disinformation task force is to preempt and defuse the campaigns before they take off, a tactic known as “prebunking,” the government said.

It also wants to make the operators of social media platforms such as X and Facebook more accountable and increase the pressure — if necessary also with sanctions — so that fake accounts and disinformation campaigns are removed more rapidly.

Fewer Ukrainians oppose compromises in talks with Russia, survey shows

Ukrainians’ opposition to concessions in talks with Russia has diminished in the last two years, though most people believe that Volodymyr Zelensky should remain president until the end of martial law, a new poll shows.

A majority of Ukrainians still rule out making compromises in negotiations with Russia, but the share has decreased to 58% from 80% in May 2022, according to the survey, which was conducted fro 26 May to 1 June by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. A total of 30% of respondents didn’t agree with the idea of opposing compromises, the study showed.

While Kyiv has secured billions of dollars in fresh Western aid to repel Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Kremlin forces have been battering Ukraine’s energy sector, and an effort by Zelensky to gain more international support at the weekend fell short of its aims. The Ukrainian leader has consistently rejected calls made by Moscow to surrender territories since the war began in February 2022.

A total of 65% of respondents indicated that they favoured a referendum on any possible terms of an accord with Russia, according to the survey, which polled 2,011 Ukrainians by phone.

Russia has sought to question the Ukrainian leader’s legitimacy since his elected term as head of state officially expired in May. Although support for Zelensky’s decisions dropped to 56% from 77% in September, a total of 70% said he should remain president until the end of the period of martial law, the survey showed.

A minority of 34% backed a recent law tightening the rules for conscription, according to the study.

Read more: Ukraine’s mobilisation campaign saps wartime economy’s workforce

Professor who spied for Russia sentenced to six years in Estonian prison

A former professor at an Estonian university was sentenced to six years in prison for espionage as authorities said he’d been first recruited by Russian intelligence as a student in St Petersburg three decades ago.

Viacheslav Morozov, a Russian citizen who taught at the University of Tartu as a professor of international political theory, was found guilty by Harju County Court on Tuesday. He was convicted of collecting information relevant to national security, including individuals and infrastructure.

Estonian authorities sketched out a picture of an accessible academic who parlayed his contacts and conference visits over the years into information that he sold to handlers during frequent visits to Russia for a small fee. Morozov (51), who previously worked at St Petersburg State University, had been an “inactive agent” until 2010, when he undertook additional training before moving his academic career to Estonia, the nation’s spy agency said.

“The information he gathered gave a very adequate picture of Estonia’s vulnerabilities,” Margo Palloson, chief of the Estonian Internal Security Service, told reporters. The intelligence could ultimately be used to plan Russian military aggression against Estonia, he said.

As European governments have increasingly moved against alleged Russian espionage networks, Estonia, which gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, has aggressively sought to uncover and prosecute individuals working for Russia’s security services.

The Baltic nation’s vocal support for Ukraine and criticism of Russia has made it a target of Moscow, which has intensified efforts against the country with espionage, cyberattacks and sabotage attempts.

Read more: Russian sabotage, spying and intimidation spread in Europe

Russian tycoon’s US-sanctioned bank expands services for Chinese

Russia’s largest private lender, sanctioned by both the US and the European Union, is planning to open new offices in China after it expanded client support services for Chinese businesses.

Alfa Bank, controlled by sanctioned billionaire Mikhail Fridman and his partners, is applying to Chinese authorities to open branches in Beijing and Shanghai, according to a statement from the bank on Tuesday. It said it was already providing services to “thousands of Chinese companies” that work with Russia and had launched a website and support for Chinese-speaking clients.

The US, the EU and its allies have sanctioned Russia’s key lenders since the start of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The US imposed blocking penalties against Alfa Bank shortly after the war began, while the EU added the lender to its sanctioned list last year. DM