Since 2023, Russia has, as it claims, set a goal to "revive tourism" in the occupied territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk regions. Through a network of telegram channels identified by the OPORA Civil Network, as well as other social networks and media, Russian spin doctors are creating the illusion that the occupiers are actively working to restore tourism. We have analyzed 3,010 messages from local pro-Russian telegram channels that mentioned tourism in the temporarily occupied territories (TOT). The study covered the period from May 2023 to May 2024.

We explored 225 Telegram channels including news resources and the channels of official authorities sharing content for the temporarily Russia-controlled parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts. We collected the total of 6,984 posts mentioning the coming pseudo elections. Based on the obtained data, we identified topics and narratives of propagandists about the pseudo elections, and estimated the frequency of mentioning political parties. We detected that Russians posted suspiciously similar texts to promote candidates in different regions.

In recent years, Telegram has become one of the main platforms for the spread of Russian propaganda and disinformation – primarily due to the lack of censorship and weak content moderation. Although this service is popular mainly in Ukraine and the Russian Federation, it is also used in other countries. However, pro-Russian channels that broadcast narratives favorable to the Kremlin are waiting for foreigners in Telegram. Civil Network OPORA investigated pro-Russian Telegram channels that work for the Western audience and the connections between them.

However, the opponents of Ukraine are not interested in any explanations. The notorious Fox News journalist Tucker Carlson, referring to the mentioned interviews of Zelensky, concluded that the "main defender of democracy in the world" decided to "abolish democracy in Ukraine." Carlson's disinformation narrative about the “Zelensky dictatorship” and “cancellation of elections” was quickly picked up by other American figures, including US House of Representatives member Marjorie Taylor Green and a journalist Glen Greenwald. Civil Network OPORA investigated who else had joined the discreditation campaign in the American segment of Twitter and Facebook, and what key disinformation narratives about the Ukrainian elections are spreading in these social networks.