Brussels has no evidence of Russian involvement in the Ceuta migration crisis, but it does see attempts at exploitation

Brussels has no evidence of Russia's alleged involvement in a disinformation campaign that would have caused the migration crisis in Ceuta, as Pedro Sánchez's Executive maintains, but it does believe that it is trying to "take advantage" of the complicated situation in which the autonomous city finds itself after the massive crossing it experienced at the end of July.

“In the case of Ceuta, we have seen attempts by Russia to exploit the online crisis,” a community spokesperson tells La Vanguardia, a day after the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, maintained in an interview on Cadena Ser that the “brave” Spanish foreign policy may have motivated movements by countries such as Russia or Israel to destabilize migratory movements through hoaxes and misinformation.

According to the same source, the EU Foreign Service (EEAS) has long seen “significant” disinformation activity on social networks seeking to exploit an issue as sensitive throughout Europe as migration. These campaigns seek to fuel divisions and increase polarization.

However, Brussels says it does not have “conclusive evidence to suggest that the crisis itself was caused by disinformation from foreign state actors.” The EEAS further recalls that, as a service to Member States, it “provides regular assessments of the information environment around specific crises or political events that are of importance to the collective interests and political objectives of the EU”, and also regularly shares its information with each of the Member States when their interests are affected.

This is a response similar to the one given by community spokesperson Guillaume Mercier at the beginning of August, when he said that Ursula von der Leyen's European Commission had already detected some channels, especially from Russia, that were trying to amplify the massive influx of migrants on social networks. This phenomenon occurred, as reported then, after July 30, without any previous suspicious activity being observed beforehand.

The European message points to Russia, but the Commission avoids responding to another of Sánchez's accusations, the one related to Israel. In Europe, the Spanish Government is one of those that pressures the most to punish Tel Aviv for its repression against Gaza, something that, for the moment, has not borne fruit due to the resistance of several countries, starting with Germany, to confront Israel.

In the initial interview, Sánchez referred to an alleged EEAS report, which has not been publicly disclosed, to defend that in this crisis a series of hoaxes spread through social networks "associated with both Russia and Israel and a far-right international" that "always uses migration, not only to attack Spain, but also Europe."

Sánchez's accusations have not been liked in the Kremlin. The spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, María Zajárova, has asked Spain for “concrete facts” that prove Russia's alleged involvement in a disinformation campaign and has warned that only after verification could an accusation of that caliber be taken seriously. The Executive, however, has not modified its position. The investigations in this area, explained from Moncloa, affect national security and a good part of them are confidential, which is why the corresponding congressional commission, behind closed doors, aims to be the channel "to report on them and not in a press conference."