ERR is in the service of propaganda again, this time as a victim

20.11.2020

In October, a Facebook webpage entitled “ERRor – новости эстонской госпропаганды” was published, in other words Estonian state propaganda news. The Kremlin-minded Allan Hantsom seems to be involved here.

The webpage started operating on October 13 and has collected 45 likes. The number of observers is up to 52.

Screenshots of ERR’s Russian portal are published on the webpage, accompanied by derogatory, ironic or a singular perspective commentary.

The topics of the posts are mostly political, where teeth are bared against Estonian politicians and their statements. There is also ironical commentary on news published on current topics in the ERR. Reinsalu, Ratas, Kallas, the Helmes’, Seeder and others get “targeted” on ERRor.

For example, in a screenshot of the news about the discussion of the Belarus issue initiated by Estonia in the UN Security Council, there is a comment: “Strange, only yesterday, Reinsalu gave advice not to their nose in US affairs, but to stick to Estonia’s affairs. Yet now suddenly he is trying to stick his nose in the affairs of independent Belarus.”

However, a screenshot of the ERRor news, where Arkadi Popov says that the coronavirus vaccine may arrive in the first half of 2021, is marked with the comment “Who will deliver it, the blue wizard from a helicopter or what? The Estonian authorities in principle reject the Russian vaccine. There is no trace of what Popov is talking about or what has already been supposedly “paid for”. ”

The webpage is anonymous, but behind it you can see “traces” of Allan Hantsom, who is familiar to Propastop readers. Namely, on October 13, October 16, Allan Hantsom shared a post in the FB group “Наш дом Эстония” , the content of which was a screenshot of an article translated into Russian by the portal UuedUudised (NewNews) “People welcome Taavi Rõivas’ departure from politics: “Rats are escaping from a sinking ship!”

On November 9, Hantsom started distributing ERRor’s posts in the FB group “Новости Эстонии” and from that day on, he now shares the news of the FB page in both groups. Hantsom is also the only one who shares ERRor’s posts in other groups.

Marina Vorontsova, Nadežda Palkovs-Filatova and Galina Azeva stand out as more active distributors of posts on their sites, the latter of whom is also an active co-author of the group “Новости Эстонии”. In addition, she was the only “like” of the first post on the ERRor page. We wrote at length about the group Новости Эстонии in June 2020.

Among the first day posts on the ERRor – новости эстонской госпропаганды webpage, several accounts with fake account characteristics, such as Viktoria Karaseva or Jevgeni Andzhans, stand out.

We wrote about the use of ERR material in filling in the content of pro-Kremlin FB pages in June. In light of this, the new propaganda initiative, which seeks directly to tie itself with the reputation of ERR, is definitely more worthy of our close attention.

Photo: screenshot from FB page