Long an issue in Eastern and Central Europe, Western European countries are just waking up to the scope of Russian propaganda and influence as election season in Germany and France looms. It has prompted new investigations into the mechanics of Kremlin strategy and stepped-up efforts to counter fake news and promote EU democratic principles.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament passed a strongly worded resolution responding both to Russian disinformation and Islamic State propaganda. The report outlined how Russia has intensified its propaganda efforts since annexing Crimea from Ukraine and called for more funding to support media freedom and education.
“The target audience is precisely the people who have a certain distrust toward the elite or the established opinions. One of their most popular tactics is to consistently, whenever they do something wrong — and they very often do — to point out that the others are just as bad. They know we tolerate dissenting voices, whereas they don’t, so they make ample use of this” says Sijbren de Jong in a conversation with Foreign Policy Magazine.
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