The EU’s External Action Service published a report on disinformation and manipulation of facts in the global information space in 2022, naming Russia as the main disinformation spinner of the year. According to the EU, Russia’s war in Ukraine became the main topic of information attacks, and in 60 cases out of 100, their goal was to justify the Russian invasion.
This is reported by Radio Liberty.
The second goal of Russia’s information attacks was to discredit the European Union and its member states, the document states.
Peter Stano, the official representative of the EU on foreign policy issues, confirmed that most cases of disinformation regarding the European Union come from Russia or its agents. The report notes that the hoaxes are spread through official diplomatic channels, state-run media that broadcast to both Russian and foreign audiences, and pro-Kremlin online channels whose affiliation with the Russian government is not directly identified, although they could be funded by Moscow.
In particular, Russian propaganda tries to present Ukraine as a “Nazi” state, accuse it of “genocide” and killing of its own citizens, spread fakes about the U.S. biolaboratories deployed in the country where biological weapons are allegedly developed aimed at “Russian DNA”, as well as about connections of Ukrainian “neo-Nazis” with foreign intelligence. The report emphasizes that such misinformation coming from Kremlin sources is also actively circulated by China’s state-run media. In total, such disinformation was found in reports in at least 30 languages, including 16 European ones.
Regarding the European Union, Russian and pro-Russian sources spread lies on the lack of support for Ukraine among the EU populations, on the self-harming effect of EU sanctions against Russia, and on people in Europe allegedly being forced to starve and freeze due to the lack of Russia’s energy supplies.
Sputnik and Russia Today (RT) are named as the most revealing examples of disinformation platforms.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, confirmed that Russia mobilized all its tools to run disinformation campaigns and systematically distort reality. The EU has seen attempts to confuse and mislead people with constantly changing narratives and versions of events. The goal is that no one believes anything anymore, so that people come to the conclusion that everyone lies and find it frustrating to try to tell a lie from the truth.
He also cited numerous memes that appeared after the launch of the EU training mission, where the bloc is portrayed as a NATO servant. Such a message appeared on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia before it was quickly picked up by more than 100 channels, including Sputnik Africa, according to the diplomat.
Borrell said that the European Union intends to fight against the spread of falsehods. According to him, Europe intends to create in the near future a center for information analysis and exchange, which will work to fight against propaganda.
