Report: Russian Influence in 2018 Czech Presidential Election

European Values Think Tank presents a new Kremlin Watch Report on Kremlin influence in the 2018 Czech presidential elections. Authors are Markéta Krejčí, Junior Analyst, Veronika Víchová, Analyst, and Jakub Janda, Head of the program. Here are the takeaways:

1. Massive disinformation campaign was orchestrated by the pro-Zeman and pro-Kremlin disinformation community of several dozen disinformation-creating websites in order to demobilize some of the voters who would have voted for Jiří Drahoš.

2. Extensive disinformation campaign was organized by unknown entities through direct-email chains. Its extent and sources remain unknown.

3. The de facto campaign manager of President Zeman, Martin Nejedlý, whose personal debt was paid off by the Moscow headquarters of Lukoil, orchestrated the campaign funding in a way that it is still not known who really provided the majority of campaign funding for President Zeman

4. Disclosed funding of his campaign and also the third-party which organized smearing billboard & advertisement campaign against Jiří Drahoš have links to China.