Denmark's counterintelligence confirmed that in 2019, Russian intelligence services organized the forgery of a letter in which there was a proposal to purchase Greenland. The letter was addressed to Republican U.S. Senator Tom Cotton and featured a fake signature of Denmark’s Foreign Minister, Ane Lone Bagger. The letter contained a proposal to organize a referendum on Greenland's independence, along with a request for financial support from the U.S.

This was reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. Its experts found a piece from the Danish publication Politiken from November 2019, which states that this letter was likely falsified by Russia. At that time, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called these reports ‘unfounded fakes’. However, on January 13 of this year, the Danish government declared that there is a ‘high probability’ that the letter was fabricated by Russian agents to sow confusion and provoke conflicts between Denmark, the U.S., and Greenland.

Russia seeks to influence international politics through disinformation to manipulate public opinion and increase tensions between countries. Additionally, Russia uses its rhetoric on ‘violations of international law’ as a tool to criticize the West. At the same time, when Russia actively spreads disinformation or organizes fake events, it is part of its strategy to divert attention from its own violations of international law and undermine other countries’ efforts to ensure stability in the international legal arena. In this way, Russia also seeks to sow doubt about the legitimacy and morality of Western countries, particularly the U.S. Russia aims to divide Western states and weaken their unity.