Russia has allocated $1.85 billion for foreign propaganda operations in 2026, a 54% increase from the previous year, according to Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service.
The record budget finances a sprawling influence apparatus across Europe: Russian state offices abroad, networks of "Russian Houses" — Kremlin-funded cultural centers — loyal foreign organizations, and new information platforms designed to bypass EU sanctions.
The funds support "systemic promotion of Russian narratives in European capitals such as Brussels, Vienna, and Luxembourg," the intelligence service told Liga.net this week.
After the EU's 20th sanctions package targeted pro-Russian media outlets, Moscow deployed what intelligence officials call "mirror sites stripped of overtly pro-Russian sloganeering." The new strategy: "create a suffering image" of Russia and portray Ukraine as blocking peace negotiations.
The information warfare budget dwarfs what many EU member states spend on their entire diplomatic services. For context, Estonia — on Russia's border and acutely aware of disinformation threats — allocates approximately $150 million annually for its foreign ministry operations, less than 10% of Russia's propaganda machine.
Baltic states have raised the alarm loudest. Latvia and Lithuania, which share borders with Russian-aligned Belarus, have documented coordinated bot networks amplifying Kremlin narratives on social media, particularly around NATO exercises and refugee movements.
German security officials warned this week about Russian-Eurasian organized crime networks conducting sabotage and intimidation across Europe, citing the 2019 Berlin killing of a Georgian national and a 2024 parcel bomb discovered in Leipzig.
The question facing Brussels: Can European democracies defend their information space against an adversary willing to spend nearly $2 billion annually to corrupt it? So far, the EU has countered with sanctions packages and media bans — legal tools against an opponent deploying psychological warfare at industrial scale.
Brussels decides more than you think. But Moscow is betting it can decide what European voters believe.
