A man at the Russia Today (RT) TV company in Moscow | Yuri Kadobnov/AFP via Getty Images Indian interests behind site targeting MEPs with RT content Site targeting MEPs pushes pro-Indian policy positions and recycles content from RT, research shows.

At least one Indian firm is behind a website that targets members of the European Parliament and other policymakers with media content that is critical of Pakistan and drawn largely from a Russian media outlet known for disinformation, according to research by a non-profit group.

EUvsDisinfo, a group funded by the European Union, showed that the website EP Today was drawing most of its content from Russian-owned RT and reproducing articles word-for-word on its site.

Further research by EU DisinfoLab, a non-profit organization, showed that EP Today's online presence overlaps with Indian stakeholders in Brussels, namely those of the Srivastava Group. EP Today's office address, at 37 Square de Meeûs, is the same as that of the Srivastava Group, a New Delhi-based company which lists the New Delhi Times as one of its assets (but not EP Today).

There was no reply to requests for comment from the group.

Much of EP Today's content — which is also drawn from the U.S.-funded Voice of America outlet — is linked to Indian interests and is critical of Pakistan, DisinfoLab's research showed.

On August 27, for example, EP Today published an article criticizing Donald Trump's offer to mediate between India and Pakistan, while op-eds have criticized Pakistan's foreign policy goals as "jihad" and called for the secession of the restive Pakistani region of Balochistan.

DisinfoLab's investigation "reveals just how complicated this field of research [disinformation] is; it shows how attribution is always difficult, and how caution should be taken when reporting on disinformation investigations,” Gary Machado, managing director at EU DisinfoLab, told POLITICO.

Pakistani suspicions

As of Tuesday evening, the EP Today site was still operating.

Its Facebook page, which had been liked by 145,000 people, was taken down on Tuesday following inquiries, including by POLITICO. A Twitter account associated with the group has been permanently suspended.

“We don't comment on individual accounts for security and privacy reasons. Impersonating another user, brand or organization in a confusing or deceptive way is a violation of the Twitter Rules,” a Twitter spokesperson said. Under Twitter’s impersonation policy, “accounts that pose as another person, brand, or organization in a confusing or deceptive manner” can be deleted.

Attempts to reach a phone number listed for EP Today went directly to voicemail. Neither EP Today nor the Srivastava Group are listed on the intercom at 37 Square de Meeûs.

Pakistani officials had long shared their misgivings about the website, given the volume of stories the website put out that criticized the country.

At a plenary event on September 18 meant to discuss the crisis in Kashmir, where many MEPs piled on India for its curfew and information blackout, EP Today published two separate articles based on comments made by two MEPs — Ryszard Czarnecki and Fulvio Martusciello — both of which criticized Pakistan. No story on critical comments made toward India was published.