Russia invades Ukraine: Socialist-linked social media campaign to 'abolish NATO' defends Putin's aggression

Extremist groups are taking advantage of Russia’s war on Ukraine to amplify anti-NATO messaging and paint Vladimir Putin as a defender against globalism, according to a watchdog group.

Twitter traffic has spiked between 20 and 25% since the start of the invasion, Joel Finkelstein, the director and chief science officer of the Network Contagion Research Institute, told Fox News Digital.

"Fringe" tweets about a "new world order" conspiracy have doubled, he said, and communist and socialist aligned accounts have been demanding an end to NATO – the Cold War-era Western alliance.

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While the accounts have been identified as on opposite ends of the political spectrum, the NCRI found some were promoting both messages.

While researchers said they could not immediately identify who was coordinating the campaigns, the NCRI said that trends indicated "extremist influences" on both sides "are developing a shared narrative" – anti-NATO and pro-Russia.

The campaigns also saw messaging from verified accounts – including the Communist parties of both the U.S. and Canada, which blamed the U.S. and NATO for Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

The "#abolishNATO" campaign followed a Saturday statement from the Democratic Socialists of America that called on the U.S. to withdraw from NATO "and to end the imperialist expansionism that set the stage for this conflict."

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The Democratic Socialists also accused a "neoliberal" "ruling class" of "trying to build a new world, through a dystopic transition grounded in militarism, imperialism and war."

"The parallels between the New World Order narrative and the coordinated efforts to Abolish NATO have remarkable similarities to one another," NCRI researchers wrote in a new report. 

On the other hand, Finkelstein said, authentic behavior indicates a "moral consensus" across the political aisle – with widespread support for Ukraine against unprovoked Russian aggression.

Congressional leaders in both major U.S. parties have condemned Russia’s invasion. So has President Biden.

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Disinformation has been a key part of Russia’s playbook since invading Ukraine. Putin claimed the offensive was a defensive measure and that he wanted to remove "Nazis" and "drug addicts" who he claimed had taken control of the government in Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish, and he lost family members in the Holocaust. A Russian bomb on Tuesday also blew up Ukraine’s largest memorial for Jews murdered by Nazis, the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial.

When the invasion began, hashtags like "#BidensWar" were briefly trending – likely the result of another coordinated campaign.

On Monday, Facebook’s parent company Meta said it was restricting access to Russian state-owned media in Europe to counter the propaganda. The social media giant also said it cracked down on a nascent network attempting to disseminate additional disinformation. 

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On the Ukrainian side, white-hat hackers and Kyiv-aligned groups have been pushing anti-war messages in a bid to turn public opinion against Putin at home.

Since the start of the invasion last week, Russia has seen protests in cities across its massive country calling for an end to the violence.

More than 6,000 Russian protesters had been arrested in dozens of cities during anti-war demonstrations since the invasion began, according to the Associated Press.