France, Poland and Germany accused Russia on Monday of creating a sophisticated network of sites to spread pro-Russian propaganda to undermine their governments, warning of mass distribution of such content ahead of EU elections in June, Reuters reported.

Western countries have repeatedly accused Russian agents of using social media and the Internet to spread false or misleading information to undermine, promote Russia, or try to sway public opinion in their countries against supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russian invasion.

“We are in a period of vulnerability because of the European elections and, as far as France is concerned, the Olympics,” French Foreign Minister Stéphane Sejourn told a joint press conference with his Polish and German counterparts at a French chateau near Paris.

The ministers said they have created a joint mechanism to detect and respond to potential Russian internet attacks.

They met as part of efforts to restore the “Weimar Triangle” platform of political cooperation between Germany, France and Poland, established in 1991.

During a press briefing ahead of the meeting, French diplomatic sources said that VIGINUM, the French watchdog that monitors foreign digital interference, had identified around 193 websites aimed at widely disseminating information from pro-Russian sources as well as Russian institutions and news. . sockets

“The aim appears to be to cover up the Russian-Ukrainian conflict by presenting the ‘special military operation’ in a positive light and denigrating Ukraine and its leaders,” a French diplomat said, referring to Moscow’s term for the invasion.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied accusations of spreading false or misleading information.

After the last elections to the European Parliament in 2019, Russia’s Security Council called the accusations of Moscow spreading disinformation to influence voters absurd.

France singled out Russian activities in Africa, saying Moscow-linked actors were trying to discredit Paris in West Africa by flooding mainstream media and social media.

“These are attacks on our democracy,” said German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock, adding that the European Union cannot allow people’s trust to be undermined.

French officials said the websites in question have so far made little progress. But their concern is that with the two-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine, elections in Russia, the EU and the United States, and the Olympics coming up this year, the websites have been designed so that when the time comes, they amount of harmful information could spread.

“We expect an acceleration of various actions by Russia and even a wide spread, so this is a reason to draw attention to it now,” said an official representative of the French army.

One example of such activity cited by diplomats on Monday was an article published on one of the sites entitled “Enough!: France calls for radical measures against (President of Ukraine Volodymyr) Zelensky.”