{"id":68006,"date":"2017-02-27T18:23:04","date_gmt":"2017-02-27T18:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uacrisis.org\/?p=53099"},"modified":"2017-04-06T13:41:30","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T10:41:30","slug":"53099-information-warfare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/53099-information-warfare","title":{"rendered":"Russian propaganda uses the same tools to spread disinformation in Central & Eastern Europe \u2013 research"},"content":{"rendered":"

WATCH IN ENGLISH<\/a><\/p>\n

Russian propaganda uses practically the same tools and messages to spread disinformation in Central & Eastern Europe and in Ukraine. Just some accents differ in the overall narrative, with regard to peculiarities of situation in a given country. These trends were revealed within the research conducted by experts from Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Moldova and Ukraine. Within the discussion \u201cInformation warfare in the Internet, revealing and countering the Kremlin propaganda in Central and Eastern Europe\u201d held at Ukraine Crisis Media Center, they presented their findings for each particular country and suggested what should be done to counter the disinformation.<\/p>\n

The research was conducted by partner think-tanks from six countries. \u201cWe tried to analyze the selected portals. Every partner has been doing this at their home country. We have covered several hundreds of such portals and found several hundred pieces of information which was fake or manipulated. This is quite frightening, because this is really a lot, and we did it only in July – October last year,\u201d – said Malgorzata Bonikowska, president of the Centre for International Relations.<\/p>\n

The materials commonly employ deceptive manipulation of facts and emotions, playing on fears and painful topics, inflating problems. The spread of misinformation is facilitated by the modern information environment: the availability of Internet and social networks, a high level of anonymity. This is further promoted by the lack media literacy in most of the population and journalists not always following professional ethics.<\/p>\n

Poland<\/strong><\/p>\n

The network of propaganda media includes websites, social networks and YouTube. Internet \u201ctrolls\u201d are very active, especially in the comments to news concerning NATO, Ukraine, relations between the US, Russia and EU. Manipulative materials usually present a mix of facts and opinions of the authors.<\/p>\n

The narratives spread by these media persuade that \u201cPoland is becoming \u201cthe vassal of the USA\u201d, that NATO is \u201ca tool of the US\u201d aimed \u201cto back interests of a small group of elites\u201d and NATO is provoking Putin, that if the war starts, Poland again will be left to fend for itself despite all the treaties, as on the dawn of World War II. In addition, propaganda uses the topic of Volyn massacre, claiming that now \u201cthese Bandera supporters came to power in Kyiv\u201d, that Ukraine is going to lay claims on Polish territories. At the same time, they remind that \u201cLviv is a Polish city\u201d and call to unite efforts with \u201cbrothers-Slavs\u201d, the Russians, instead of the \u201chomosexual West\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sometimes there are absolutely blatant lies, such as two fake interviews with two Polish generals published on the eve of Warsaw summit. In fact, these interviews never took place. One of them said, for example, that sending NATO troops “with homosexuals and transvestites” to Poland was an attempt to “make a laughing stock of Poland.” Another interesting example is the message claiming that Ukrainian right nationalists allegedly believe that Przemysl should be part of Ukraine. It was published as news July 14, 2016, just three days after the anniversary of the Volyn tragedy, but the bulk of the article were excerpts from an interview with the Speaker of “Right Sector” Taras Tarasenko to daily newspaper “Rzeczpospolita”, which was published in January 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommon characteristics of such articles is that they are usually written by anonymous authors, which hinders exposing these \u201cjournalists\u201d. This is very important fact, given that one of our recommendations to counter pro-Kremlin propaganda is to name and shame the authors of those disinformation by putting them in the public spotlight,\u201d – said Antoni Wierzejski, an analyst of Centre for International Relations.<\/p>\n

Polish mainstream media are rather resistant to fakes, however, they retransmitted the news about Egypt allegedly transferring to Russia warships \u201cMistral\u201d, which France refused to sell to Russia.<\/p>\n