Bots identified pushing anti-NATO messages in Croatian presidential runoff

“Pro-Russian, anti-EU, and anti-NATO bot networks” are attempting to sway opinion ahead of the Croatian presidential runoff on Sunday, according to researchers.

The networks were observed praising the incumbent president, Zoran Milanović, who narrowly missed out on the majority needed to be elected during the first round of the election in December when he won 49.09% of the vote.

His most successful opponent, Dragon Primorac, lagged far behind him with just 19.35% of the vote. Given the first round results, Milanović is widely expected to legitimately win the runoff.

According to independent Croatian researchers working with the Centre for Information Resilience — which said its investigators verified their findings — messaging from networks of inauthentic accounts has been swaying conversations on X, Facebook, Reddit, TikTok, Telegram, and news websites. The researchers requested anonymity to protect their security. 

Accounts that appear bot-like, with profiles featuring pro-Russian government imagery and hashtags, have been amplifying “pro-Milanović content while disseminating anti-EU and anti-NATO messaging,” say the researchers.

The accounts celebrated Milanović as an “anti-NATO” candidate, according to the researchers, echoing praise of the incumbent made by Russia-aligned news organizations and criticisms from Primorac.

Milanović —who as the president is the ceremonial head of state and the commander in chief of the armed forces, but is not part of the executive branch and has no authority over NATO deployments — has repeatedly been criticized by the Croatian government for his comments suggesting the country would not support Ukraine ahead of the Russian invasion in 2022, and blaming the West for the conflict.

Croatia is a member of both NATO and the European Union, with Milanović formalising the accession to the EU when he was prime minister in 2013. Despite this, he has criticised the country’s current prime minister as being a “puppet” for Brussels.

The country’s incumbent prime minister, Andrej Plenković — who has endorsed Primorac and criticised Milanović, but is struggling to convince Croatians to support him following corruption allegations against 30 members of his cabinet — complained that another term of Milanović presidency would drag Croatia toward Russia.