Does Putin’s propaganda crumble support for European integration?

The Western liberal world order is in danger. Since the appointment of Russian President Putin in 2000, Russia has grown in power and influence to create an illiberal alternative to the Western world order. Russia’s foreign policy initiatives are aimed at expanding its sphere of influence over post-Soviet republics like Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, by for example making use of pro-Kremlin propaganda in (social) media. In this thesis, I will focus on media and propaganda as influence tools. This thesis tries to establish whether Russian media influences have a positive impact on the popularity of pro-Russian political parties opposing European integration. In order to test this, a cross-sectional comparative case study will be conducted of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. I find that the Russian-speaking population in the countries is particularly vulnerable to Russian disinformation and propaganda efforts. Also, the amount of Russian disinformation and propaganda has increased since the annexation of Crimea. There are differences in patterns with regards to the popularity of pro-Russian parties opposing European integration. In Estonia, there were no pro-Russian parties within the time frame 2004-2021. In Latvia, the popularity of pro-Russian political parties was relatively significant and stable over time, while in Lithuania, the popularity of pro-Russian parties drastically decreased within the period. However, considering these findings, I cannot support the argument that a higher population exposure to Russian propaganda and disinformation leads to a higher popularity of pro-Russian political parties opposing European integration. At least, the effect is not as strong as hypothesized.