ALLATRA at OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference 2026
Representatives of ALLATRA and ALLATRA GRC at the OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference 2026.
At the OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference 2026, ALLATRA GRC experts presented a documented case study showing how stigmatizing narratives originating in Russia’s anti-cult network cross borders, lose the traces of their origin and, through repetition, acquire the appearance of independent European assessments capable of influencing institutions. The key findings of the case study were subsequently brought into the official proceedings by Vladimir Ivanov, an attorney and legal researcher at the Center, during his address at Plenary Session 3, “Fundamental Freedoms I”.
Representatives of ALLATRA and ALLATRA GRC took part in the OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference 2026, Europe's largest annual human rights conference, held from 5 to 15 October 2026 in Poland and organized by the Swiss OSCE Chairpersonship with the support of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). On 7 October, ALLATRA convened the side event "From Russian Disinformation to Narrative Laundering in Europe and the National Security Gap", presenting the disinformation campaign targeting ALLATRA as a case study of Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) and its impact on civic space.
From left: Veronika Leštáchová, Mariia Anapreichyk and Karolína Hronová, experts of the ALLATRA Global Research Center, at the OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference 2026 in Warsaw.
A vulnerability that is hard to detect
European security institutions increasingly recognize FIMI and the strategic exploitation of identity-based narratives as tools that may form part of hybrid threats. The side event focused on a vulnerability that remains difficult to detect and address: what happens when a narrative originating in a foreign information-manipulation campaign loses the visible markers of its origin and is recirculated through domestic actors as apparently independent analysis?
Mariia Anapreichyk, Legal Researcher in International and European Law, and Vladimir Ivanov, Attorney and Legal Researcher, both of the ALLATRA Global Research Center, during the side event “From Russian Disinformation to Narrative Laundering in Europe and the National Security Gap” at the OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference 2026, Warsaw.
What the side event examined
The case of ALLATRA, an international civic organization working on climate, environmental issues and human rights, illustrates this process. The speakers traced how the stigmatizing narrative against it was first produced within the transnational anti-cult network centered on the Russian Association of Centers for the Study of Religions and Sects (RACIRS), and how it then crossed borders and adapted to new national contexts. Repeated and cited by media and other actors, some of whom may have been unaware of its origin, the narrative gradually lost the traces of its Russian provenance and acquired an appearance of independent legitimacy.
The speakers traced the evolution of the stigmatizing narratives against ALLATRA from around 2015, examining how “sect” and “cult” labels developed into allegations of security threats, how the same organization was subsequently portrayed in Ukraine in contrasting geopolitical terms, and how these accounts circulated in European media. They also examined how repeated dissemination can influence search-engine results and responses generated by AI systems.
The discussion also addressed what happens when stigmatizing narratives meet corrective facts. The speakers referred to court rulings, police decisions and institutional findings that did not confirm the allegations, and showed that the narrative nevertheless continued to circulate. Using the example of a single photograph, they illustrated how descriptions unsupported by official statements can be attached to an image and repeated until they are perceived as evidence.
Finally, the speakers turned to what they described as the national security gap: the risk that foreign influence may shape whom states regard as dangerous. On this basis, they put before the OSCE the question of how participating States and OSCE institutions can identify such cross-border narrative transfers early, before they lead to restrictions on civic space and freedom of association.
Speakers of the side event “From Russian Disinformation to Narrative Laundering in Europe and the National Security Gap” at the OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference 2026. Top, from left: Mariia Anapreichyk, expert of the ALLATRA Global Research Center, and Maryna Ovtsynova, President of ALLATRA (online). Bottom, from left: Jevgenija Malecka (online) and Vladimir Ivanov, experts of the ALLATRA Global Research Center.
"The label changes with the audience and its perception of the external adversary, while its function remains remarkably stable: to position the organization as foreign, disloyal and potentially dangerous," said Vladimir Ivanov (Bulgaria), attorney and legal researcher at the ALLATRA Global Research Center, who moderated the event.
Mariia Anapreichyk (Switzerland), legal researcher in international and European law at the ALLATRA Global Research Center, pointed out that "once a stigmatizing frame has been established and distributed across mutually reinforcing actors, corrective evidence may be ignored, marginalized or reframed as institutional failure."
Jevgenija Malecka (Latvia), lawyer, former law-enforcement officer and legal researcher at the ALLATRA Global Research Center, who joined online, concluded her analysis of the photograph with the words: "Repetition does not turn an unsupported accusation into evidence."
Maryna Ovtsynova (USA), President of ALLATRA, who has training in national security, counterterrorism, and influence operations, participated online and warned that the threat assessment process itself can become a target of foreign influence, who also participated online, warned that the process of threat assessment itself can become a target of foreign influence: "The central national security gap is that the origins of expert threat assessments are checked far less systematically than those of conventional information campaigns."
The question for the OSCE
The speakers urged the OSCE to engage with this issue and to contribute to the development of a dedicated mechanism, proposing an early-warning and accountability pathway: narrative detected, source traced, pattern documented, human-rights impact assessed, responsible institution identified, institutional response and follow-up. They argued that civil-society organizations need an identifiable institutional channel through which they can submit documented patterns of cross-border narrative transfer.
"If the origin of a threat narrative is investigated only after it has contributed to raids, prohibitions, exclusion or other restrictions, the protective response has come too late," concluded Vladimir Ivanov.
From the side event to the plenary
On the same day, Vladimir Ivanov presented the key findings of the side event at Plenary Session 3 “Fundamental Freedoms I”, part of the Conference’s official programme, bringing the case and its implications for civic space and freedom of association before OSCE participating States, institutions and civil-society representatives.
Vladimir Ivanov, attorney and legal researcher at the ALLATRA Global Research Center, presents the key findings of the ALLATRA side event at Plenary Session 3 “Fundamental Freedoms I” of the OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference 2026.
About ALLATRA
ALLATRA is an international organization with a research center in the United States (ALLATRA Global Research Center), engaged in the comprehensive analysis of climate and environmental changes, the study of the impact of micro- and nanoplastics, and the promotion of intercultural cooperation and the protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms.
In recognition of its commitment to environmental protection and preservation of creation, ALLATRA received an Apostolic Blessing from His Holiness Pope Francis in 2024. In 2025, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV likewise bestowed an Apostolic Blessing upon the President of ALLATRA and all its volunteers.
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