Debate: Countering the anti-European and anti-Ukrainian propaganda of Putin’s European cronies
Date: WEDNESDAY, 5 OCTOBER 2022
Speaker: Margaritis Schinas
Language: EN

I think the vast majority of all of us feel very strongly that we need to say loudly no to war propaganda and disinformation, to say no to bullies blackmailing households, to those who use energy as a gunshot.  Dear friends, honourable Members, disinformation and war propaganda was used to pave the way for Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and continues to fuel Russia’s military aggression. Various disinformation actors are looking now for a transition from the gains of the pandemic to the lies and myths around the war in Ukraine.  The spectacles of the so-called referenda, accompanied by a large volume of disinformation, is a method straight from the Kremlin’s playbook, used to illegally annex the territories of its neighbours. This is exactly the same pattern we have seen in Crimea back in 2014.  We have also seen the same pattern consecutively within the European Union, where we find numerous indications on opportunists and wannabes in several of our Member States, national politicians, members of parliaments, and clearly journalists and media are columnists. We have seen it all. Russian diplomats expelled from Athens some years ago, in Sofia a few months ago. Media tycoons clearly trying to impose gonzo networks and muppet journalism in our capitals.  We read reports about Kyiv allegedly falling in the first three days of the war. We saw TV reports of dead bodies in the Bucha massacre allegedly moving. And we saw lies published on bombing innocent pregnant women in a maternity hospital, which apparently did not exist. There are no riddles or enigmas on all of this. Russian propaganda penetrates our societies through chancers and oligarch rubles on our screens, on our newspapers, and in our public space.  Let’s put it in a rather simple way: Russian disinformation and propaganda is targeting both European and international audiences in order to undermine the democratic West’s support to Ukraine and vilify our Ukrainian partners. And this is crucial within our Union and our closest friends and allies as, for instance, in the Western Balkans, where I am visiting these days.  This is our moment now as Europeans to refute this propaganda, to defend and stand for the truth and strike back. As seen by our recent reports on EU DisinfoLab and from Facebook, by impersonating European media outlets using proxies online and using other manipulative behaviour, Russia is targeting now Europeans directly with apocalyptic messages about impending the winter without heating and accusing EU sanctions of growing inflation and energy bills.  Fighting online disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference is now a key priority not only for the Commission but, I think, for our institutions as a whole. We now have the code of practice of disinformation, which we strengthened this year, and this is the centrepiece of our efforts. Since the beginning of the war, the Commission has been monitoring through regular meetings the platform’s actions to address directly Russian propaganda. The tech companies, signatories of the code of practice, are implementing our sanctions and are taking important steps together with us to curb the spread of propaganda and harmful disinformation, including the closing of many accounts, demotion of this information, or stepping up cooperation with fact-checkers.  The European Digital Media Observatory and its national hubs have also been instrumental in this fight. By focusing our activities on Ukraine over the last few months, the collaboration of EU fact-checkers and academic researchers has decreased the capacity of our attackers and has increased our ability of detecting, analysing and exposing disinformation and war-related campaigns.  The Observatory’s specific task force on the war has identified more than 1 600 disinformation instances related to the war through fact checks and issued reports and investigations on both emerging and trending narratives. We will continue to build on this valuable expertise, expanding the coverage of the Observatory activities to 100% of the EU population, as well as in the context of the code’s monitoring and exchange with technology platforms. Honourable Members, we have imposed as a Union the biggest and deepest sanctions packages in our history, including against notorious figures directly involved in disinformation. We have even sanctioned for the first time ever the broadcasting of Russian media such as Russia Today and Sputnik, as they were clearly propaganda machines. We have curbed the activity of the Kremlin’s weapons of mass deception, not only with full respect with fundamental rights and freedoms, but in order precisely to protect these fundamental rights and freedoms.  We are also very actively raising awareness about pro-Kremlin disinformation via our EUvsDisinfo website and with the help of our delegations around the world. We cooperate closely with the StratCom Centre, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, supporting civil society and media in this country. And when the war is over, believe me, there will be many pilgrimages in Kyiv to see precisely how successful this collaboration has been. And building on the action plan against disinformation and the European democracy action plan, as confirmed lately by the strategic compass, we have put in place very tangible, specific measures to address foreign information and manipulation. We have even a dedicated toolbox, the FIMI toolbox, to deal with this challenge. And we have just announced a defence of democracy package to further broaden our appeal, our capacity to resist against foreign interference.  Finally, in this, as the minister just said, we need to complete the picture of fighting disinformation and foreign hostile interference with the approval of our proposals on political advertising and on the funding of European political parties and foundations. We need to work in earnest and swiftly to have agreements on this emblematic and meaningful piece of legislation.  And the final point. We have indeed seen reports on the United States’ findings concerning the 300 million illegal financing by Russia within the European Union. Let me assure you that we are looking forward to receive this information and we will get to the bottom of it.