Amplifying an image of police suppression of protests in Europe

What it claims

References to protests over the cost of living, housing, reforms and military support for Ukraine are cast as a Europe-wide “wave” that governments suppress with police. Arrests, tear gas and water cannon are inflated into an image of authorities responding to discontent with violence. Migration and other internal European problems are separately presented as explanations for the protests, while Russian involvement is dismissed.

Target audience

Examples (paraphrased)

We paraphrase rather than quote: propaganda's exact wording is built to spread, so we carry the claim and not the craft. Each example cites the post it came from.

• European governments disperse protests over the cost of living, housing problems and support for Ukraine with tear gas, water cannon and arrests.

  RT DE, 25 Oct 2026 · Archived copy

• The protests in Europe are caused by the migration crisis and internal problems, not by Russian interference.

  RT DE, 25 Oct 2026 · Archived copy

We link archived copies rather than the posts themselves, so that checking our work sends no traffic to the source. Where a platform cannot be archived, we print the post's address instead of linking it.

Goal

To persuade economically anxious Germans and Germans with low trust in institutions that European governments answer public discontent with coercion and that support for Ukraine forms part of this policy.

Techniques used

• Exaggeration or MinimisationReferences to arrests and police crowd-control measures are presented as evidence that governments across Europe suppress protests.
• Causal OversimplificationMigration and Europe’s internal problems are reduced to an explanation for the protests and set against suggestions of Russian influence.

The real grievance it exploits

The narrative seizes on genuine anxieties in Germany about living costs, access to housing, economic uncertainty and the possible spread of war.

How to counter

• Technique exposure: Check whether reporting on different reasons for protests is being turned into one picture of police suppression. Mentioning crowd-control measures alone does not explain either the circumstances of their use or the participants’ demands.
• Reframe: Living costs, housing, reforms, migration and war are different issues with different participants and demands. Treating them as one “wave” requires separate evidence, not merely a selection of reports about protests.

Sources (all time)

• RT DETier 125,944 subscribers
  3 posts · 25 Oct 2026

  • 25 Oct · t.me/rt_de/84078
  • 25 Oct · Archived copy
  • 25 Oct · Archived copy