Pro-Kremlin EULosses site targets Estonia sanctions debate
A fabricated website claiming huge EU sanctions losses was amplified via Pravda Network and Telegram channels to sway Russophone Estonians ahead of October 2025 elections.
DFRLab documented a cross-platform pro-Kremlin influence operation centered on eulosses[.]com, a fake economic-loss counter claiming the EU loses €65-135 million daily due to Russia sanctions. The site, built with a Russian no-code tool and hosted on Russian infrastructure, was debunked four times by independent fact-checkers who found exaggerated figures, fabricated sourcing, and no verifiable methodology. Despite this, the DFRLab tracked 301 mentions across nine platforms and twenty languages, driven by two coordinated amplification bursts and 'copy-pasta' reposting of an initial Telegram post from account @ssigny, with early boosts from known Kremlin-linked Pravda Network sites and InfoDefense Telegram channels.
In Estonia, the narrative was seeded by an ambiguous online persona, 'Anatoli Barinov Jr.,' linked to the pro-Kremlin outlet Tribuna.ee, who posted the site in the large Facebook group 'Russian-speaking Estonia.' The claim was subsequently amplified by Estonian Centre Party MP Aleksander Chaplygin across Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube, generating significant engagement and reinforcing pre-existing sanctions-skeptic narratives among Russophone Estonians. Additional contextual amplification came from pro-Kremlin activist Andrei Vesterinen, whose earlier content normalized the idea that sanctions harm Europe more than Russia.
The campaign illustrates a now-familiar pattern of Kremlin-aligned influence operations: a fabricated data source seeded via low-visibility channels, rapidly amplified through coordinated multilingual networks (Pravda Network, InfoDefense), and then absorbed into local political discourse via aligned politicians and persona accounts, with the goal of eroding public support for sanctions and deepening domestic polarization ahead of Estonia's October 2025 municipal elections.
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Source reporting: https://dfrlab.org/2026/04/27/fabricated-eu-economic-loss-counter-used-to-undermine-sanctions-support-in-estonia
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