<aside> đź’ˇ Examples from this section have been compiled in a table in Supplementary Materials for ease of viewing. The items have been hyperlinked in the text where appropriate to avoid making it difficult to read due to the overwhelming number of screenshots.
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Pro-Kremlin influencers on the far-left, the far-right, and conspiracy theory personalities promoted the idea that the United States attacked Nord Stream. Blaming the US frequently went together, insisting it was outlandish to say that Russia was responsible.
Multiple accounts identified among the first to share an ABC video tweet had histories of past interaction with Russian, Chinese, or Iranian state affiliates. The video was the first of two key tweets, the second being a tweet from Radek Sikorski, whose comment was used to insist the US was responsible for the Nord Stream explosions.
In the video, US President Biden promises to stop Nord Stream 2. Less than a month later, with the cooperation of the German government, Biden did so by sanctioning the pipeline. Still, this did not stop influential accounts from amplifying the clip, which was misleading and without context in most of the influential tweets reviewed (The White House, 2022; DW, 2022; Polygraph, 2022).
The messaging and behavior of AfD, Russian state affiliates, media, and the context of the Nord Stream explosion are worth examining. The details and aspects highlighted do not demonstrate that anyone had foreknowledge or collaborated–though we do not exclude the possibility either–instead, they show the social and political climate wherein the explosion happened.
Russia's history of amplifying AfD's dissatisfaction with domestic politics includes AfD's protests against efforts to halt Nord Stream 2 (Tsukanov, 2021; German RT, 2021). AfD advocated ending sanctions against Russia before Russia renewed its invasion in February 2022 (DW, 2021).
Although AfD initially denied connections to Russia, AfD has cultivated relationships with powerful Putin allies like Vyacheslav Volodin, a former Putin aid on the "Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list" of the US Treasury (Chazan and Hille, 2017; DER SPIEGEL Staff, 2019; US Department of the Treasury, 2022).
The Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote of a 2019 AfD scandal, saying, "AfD member Markus Frohnmaier came under scrutiny after leaked documents revealed that Russia planned to provide financial and public relations assistance to his campaign” (Mankoff, 2020; DER SPIEGEL Staff, 2019)center. The support does not seem one-sided. On September 16, 2022, the Robert Lansing Institute warned that Russia was preparing for a "fake news campaign involving (AfD)” (Robert Lansing Institute, 2022).
AfD had planned to visit Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine in late September 2022 but canceled after facing "widespread criticism” (Schuetze, 2022) Washington Post reported a growing concern among German politicians about the potential for AfD to cause trouble at home (Morris and Brady, 2022):
"In recent months, German politicians have become particularly concerned that the AfD will whip up fervor over the energy crisis in Europe, serving Putin's aims by stirring discontent and raising questions over whether Western backing of Ukraine's war is worth it."
The most influential quote-tweet (judged by an account's followers and tweet engagement) was from Miryam "Partisangirl" Susli. Russian state affiliates like Garland Nixon, Helena Villar, and Afshin Rattansi shared Partisangirl's quote-tweet of the ABC video.
Examining accounts that shared the ABC video on September 26 and early on September 27, in the context of Nord Stream, we found many had interacted with state-affiliated accounts in the past. The past interactions do not necessarily indicate anything nefarious about these users, though they may indicate something about the practice of state-affiliated accounts and the spreading of dis- and malinformation (Li, 2022a).