Open Call to Democratic Parliaments<\/h2>\n
On 18 September 2016, the Russian authorities have held \u201cparliamentary elections\u201d on the territory of unlawfully occupied and illegally annexed Crimea and Sevastopol in breach of the international law. Thus the absolute majority of the seats in the new Russian State Duma (229 out of 450) are illegitimate. Therefore, we call on parliaments of democratic states to stop cooperating with Russian State Duma. Sign the open call\u00a0zde<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to the Russian daily Kommersant, Vladimir Putin wants tomerge<\/a>\u00a0the Foreign Intelligence Service with the Federal Security service into the Ministry of State Security. According to Andrei Soldatov from the\u00a0Foreign Policy<\/strong>, such a move would mean a resurrection of the Committee for State Security \u2013 the KGB.<\/p>\n The Russian-sponsored TV Channel\u00a0RT<\/strong>is going to be\u00a0investigated<\/a>\u00a0by the British Office of Communications for breaching accuracy and impartiality rules by providing inaccurate information about the fracking company Cuadrilla. Meanwhile, RT offered Nigel Farage, among several other public figures, his own television\u00a0show<\/a>. It seems Nigel Farage has been discussing several options, for example working as a reporter during the US Presidential elections, but nothing has been agreed so far.<\/p>\n A new group of bloggers emerged in Russia in an\u00a0attempt<\/a>\u00a0to disprove the MH17 investigations; mostly focusing on undermining the credibility of the open-source investigations of the\u00a0Bellingcat<\/strong>\u00a0group. But according to the\u00a0Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab<\/strong>, the independence and impartiality of the Russian bloggers, calling themselves the Anti-Bellingcat, is questionable. One of them is Mikhail Malyshevskiv, an advisor to the chief constructor of Russian arms manufacturer Almaz-Antey, a state-owned company producing the missiles for the BUK complex and participated in the attempt of the Kremlin to discredit the official Dutch investigation. The co-author Yuri Kotenok is a head of the press department of the Russian Institute of Stratefic Studies; a government think-tank founded by Vladimir Putin as well.<\/p>\n The new re-branded edition of the Information War Monitor aims to provide a bi-weekly overview of disinformation and propaganda existing in the media discourse in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. The European Values Think-Tank is a proud contributor and we are going to incorporate a shortened version of the Information War Monitor into our newsletter so that you can stay in the loop on the most important disinformation campaigns in Central Europe. The full report can be found<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>zde<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The attendance of the President of the Czech Republic, Milo\u0161 Zeman, at the Dialogue of Civilisations forum was announced via\u00a0Parlamentn\u00ed listy<\/a>. The news was further promoted on a Twitter account of the presidential spokesman:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tweet by Czech president Zeman spokesman: \u201cWe can expect a lot of rage: Milos Zeman is going to the event of Putin’s acquaintance Yakunin again. Along with him Fico and Orban\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n Mainstream and alternative\u00a0media<\/a>\u00a0wrote about the possibility of\u00a0Milo\u0161 Zeman<\/a>, Viktor Orb\u00e1n, and\u00a0R\u00f3bert Fico<\/a>\u00a0participating at the Rhodes Forum; which is organised by the Dialogue of Civilizations Research Institute which is founded by an oligarch close to Putin, Vladimir Yakunin. He is a Russian businessman, former president of Russian Railways, friend of Vladimir Putin, and a former high-ranking KGB official. He was placed onto the US sanctions list in the wake of the Ukrainian conflict.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As Hungary slowly prepares for the referendum on the plan of the European Union to relocate refugees in Europe using quotas, its government started an \u201cinformation campaign<\/a>\u201d. Huge influx of immigrants to Europe, the rising of\u00a0crime rates<\/a>, sexualassaults<\/a>, or\u00a0terrorism<\/a>\u00a0are the primary narratives used by disinformation outlets. While some media outlets state that \u201cmosques are in fact military bases<\/a>\u201d and Hungarian PM Viktor Orb\u00e1n called migrants \u201cpoison<\/a>\u201d, the liberal politicians are portrayed as wanting\u00a0terrorism<\/a>. Czech president,\u00a0Milo\u0161 Zeman<\/a>, has become the voice of the Hungarian anti-immigration propaganda. Among other things, he recently\u00a0stated<\/a>\u00a0that the \u201ccurrent migrant wave is rooted in the craziness of the Americans\u201d.<\/p>\n The pro-Kremlin outlets in Central Europe continue to disseminate the antagonistic narrative of immigration and highly praised the Hungarian referendum. The more obscure ones\u00a0copied the rhetoric<\/a>\u00a0of anti-immigration parties. In some cases, these outlets were used by extreme right-wing\u00a0parties<\/a>\u00a0to spread disinformation on thealternatives to the EU<\/a>, to promote\u00a0the alleged plan of the Netherlands<\/a>\u00a0to leave the EU, and to cooperate closely with Russia. Some of the most influential pro-Kremlin disinformation media outlets also spread the notions of continuous\u00a0\u201cIslamization\u201d of Europe<\/a>\u00a0or \u201cbiased labelling<\/a>\u00a0of Russia\u201d as an aggressor.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We use this weekly opportunity to award the Putinversteher of the Week to highlight the most obvious attempts, intentional or not, to go on Kremlin’s hand and assist it with spreading its view all over Europe. We believe it is necessary to appreciate in this ceremonial way that without these little helpers, Russian disinformation campaign could never reach its present lengths.<\/em><\/p>\n As\u00a0Newsweek<\/strong>\u00a0reported<\/a>, a forum called \u201cDialogue of Nations\u201d organized by the Anti-Globalist Movement would be held in Moscow at the end of September. Among the honorary members of the movement is also Bashar al-Assad; the Syrian president and the Vladimir Putin’s ally. The official aim of the forum was to unite independence movements and to discuss supporting a multipolar world. Among the expected guests were groups seeking independence from their countries irrespective of their ideology from Texas, Catalonia, Venice and Lombardy, Scotland, Hawaii, or even California. However, the exact list of attendees has not been published before the forum actually took place. According to\u00a0The New York Times<\/strong>, a\u00a0representative<\/a>\u00a0of the Republican Sinn Fein showed up at the event.<\/p>\n Peter Kreko, director of Political Capital Institute from Hungary, told Newsweek: \u201cThe Important thing is what the movement fits perfectly to the general strategy of the Kremlin to encourage secessionist movements throughout Europe and encourage referenda.\u201d We do not take a stance on separatist movements and do not claim they should or should not get together and discuss common issues, but to do so under the auspices of a movement supported by the Kremlin should not be the road to take in any case. Moscow would never support separatists trying to be independent from Russia; it only supports rebels who might want to join it. This is why we would like to give all the eventual attendees of the forum our weekly prize: Putinverstehers of the week.<\/p>\n Roland Freudenstein from\u00a0<\/strong>The Martens Centre<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>shows in this video <\/a>how to deal with conspiracy theories in 60 seconds. It is a commonly known fact that one of the best ways of how to deal with trolls and propaganda is by humour and this video is very successful in that area.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Michael Ledeen wrote an\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0Forbes<\/strong>\u00a0about a former highest-ranking Soviet bloc intelligence officer who came to the West, General Ion Mihai Pacepa, and his views on the US presidential election and the Russian threat.<\/p>\n Erik C. Nisbet and Elizabeth Stoycheff\u00a0explain<\/a>\u00a0the reasons behind the high level of support for Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy amongst the Russian public for\u00a0The Conversation.<\/strong><\/p>\nAnti-Bellingcat team strikes back<\/h2>\n
Information War Monitor for Central Europe: August 2016; published by GLOBSEC Policy Institute<\/h1>\n
Central European heads of states to attend Kremlin-funded conference<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nImmigrants threatening the citizens of Central European countries<\/h2>\n
Putinversteher of the Week<\/h1>\n
Video of the Week<\/h1>\n
Euroatlantic experts on disinformation warfare<\/h1>\n