{"id":5157,"date":"2017-03-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/europeanvalues.cz\/kremlin-watch-monitor-march-8-2017\/"},"modified":"2021-12-16T12:22:09","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T10:22:09","slug":"kremlin-watch-monitor-march-8-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/europeanvalues.cz\/cs\/kremlin-watch-monitor-march-8-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Kremlin Watch Monitor March 8, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weekly monitor of pro-Kremlin disinformation effort in Europe. We follow best European analysts, best counter-measures and trends.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Invitation to the Expert Roundtable<\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0European Values Think-Tank in cooperation with the European People\u2019s Party Group in the European Parliament are pleased to invite you to conference:\u00a0\u201cPutin\u2019s Russia: How urgent threat it poses?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

This conference will be held under patronage of Jarom\u00edr \u0160t\u011btina MEP, member of EPP Group, Vice-Chair of Security and Defense Subcommittee of the European Parliament.<\/p>\n

A new comparative study\u00a0\u201cBehavior of Putin`s Russia through lens of allied strategic and policy documents\u201d\u00a0<\/em>by European Values Think-Tank will be presented. It will analyze security strategies, foreign policy strategies and annual reports of allied intelligence agencies of EU28 states through lens of how these documents perceive behavior of the Russian Federation.<\/p>\n

Date & venue:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

24 April 2017 \u2013 European Parliament, Brussels<\/p>\n

14:30 \u2013 16:00<\/p>\n

You can find more information and the registration form on our\u00a0website<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\nPutin’s Champion Award<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our\u00a0Expert Jury<\/a>\u00a0consisting of\u00a0Jessikka Aro, Anton Shekhovtsov, John Schindler and Michael Weiss<\/strong>\u00a0regularly vote on the dangerousness of several candidates you can nominate via e-mail or Twitter.<\/p>\n

We already have the 4th\u00a0Putin’s Champion Award Recipient:<\/p>\n

Julian Assange<\/strong><\/p>\n

For serving as a loyal tool of the Kremlin and attacking selected politicians Moscow wants to be sunk<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\nImage Source: David G Silvers. Canciller\u00eda del Ecuador, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/em><\/p>\n

The Expert Jury ranked his Putin-supportive job with<\/p>\n

4,7<\/strong><\/p>\n

(out of 5) mark.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The rating signals how much the recipient contributed to the interest of the Putin\u2019s aggressive regime. It is calculated as an average of ratings assessed by the Expert Jury of this Award.<\/p>\n

You can find more details about the award and the former recipients\u00a0zde<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\nWeekly Update on the Kremlin Disinformation Efforts in Europe<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to General Sir Adrian Bradshaw, the Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, the alleged Russian cyber attacks influencing US presidential elections could be\u00a0considered<\/a>\u00a0an act of aggression and\u00a0trigger the Article 5 of the NATO Treaty<\/strong>, activating the principle of collective defence.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0Joint Declaration on freedom of expression<\/strong>\u00a0has been\u00a0issued<\/a>\u00a0by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression David Kaye, together with his counterparts from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Organization of American States, and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. In the document, the authors focus on fake news, disinformation, and propaganda.<\/p>\n

The First Draft News<\/strong>\u00a0is launching a new\u00a0project<\/a>, getting together researchers in order to\u00a0map the misinformation ecosystem in Europe<\/strong>. The focus should be especially on the Netherlands, France, and Germany. The resulting product should be a field guide describing the digital methods, data, tools, techniques, and research approaches which can be used for increasing public understanding of the fake news.<\/p>\n


\nFocus on Germany<\/strong><\/p>\n

German troops in Lithuania under disinformation fire<\/strong><\/p>\n

A fake report has been\u00a0planted<\/a>\u00a0to the email inbox of the speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament, stating that German soldiers placed in the country within the NATO battle group had raped a teenage girl. The disinformation has been caught quickly and did not cause as much turmoil as one might expect. According to the Czech NATO General Petr Pavel, Moscow is to blame for the incident, but the Lithuanian authorities are still in the process of investigation.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, The German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0Germany is going to assist the Baltic countries with establishing Russian-language media<\/strong>\u00a0outlets in order to counter disinformation and attract Russian-speaking minorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlternative German foreign policy\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

While German officials fight pro-Kremlin disinformation in the Baltic states, some German political far-right representatives have been active as well. The leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), Frauke Petry,\u00a0met<\/a>\u00a0with two Russian MPs from the United Russia party, as well as with Vladimir Zhirinovsky, an ultra-nationalist from the Russia’s lower house of parliament, discussing inter-party cooperation and other things. Other representatives from the AfD, together with members of the Austrian Freedom Party, participated as \u201celectoral monitors\u201d in the \u201cconstitutional referendum\u201d organized by the self-proclaimed authorities of the unrecognised state of Nagorno-Karabakh.\u00a0 As Anton Shekovtsov\u00a0points<\/a>\u00a0out, Russian federation is not an official side to this conflict, but sells weaponry to both engaged countries, ensuring its sphere of influence.<\/p>\n


\nEuroatlantic experts on disinformation warfare<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you were looking for a thorough overview of the relations between Russia and the United States from the end of the cold war up till now, summarizing\u00a0what we do and do not know about the Kremlin’s meddling during the US presidential elections<\/strong>, the long-read by Evan Osnos, David Remnick, and Joshua Yaffa in the\u00a0New Yorker<\/a>\u00a0is exactly for you.<\/p>\n


\nThe Visegrad group<\/strong>\u00a0has been known to cooperate on many issues during the modern history, but\u00a0the issue of Russia continues to be one of the biggest divisions<\/strong>\u00a0of opinion among these Central European countries. Edit Zgut, Jakub \u0160imkovic, Krzysztof Kokoszczynski, and Luk\u00e1\u0161 Hendrych argue on the pages of\u00a0Euractiv<\/a>\u00a0that it is very unlikely that this situation will change, overviewing each state’s stances towards the Kremlin and its policies.<\/p>\n

If you are curious about the details of\u00a0how troll factory works<\/strong>\u00a0and what it can do to even the most genuine and non-harmful attempts for serious journalism, we recommend this article by Mathias St\u00e5hle, published by\u00a0ekuriren<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kremlin Watch Reading Suggestion<\/strong><\/p>\n

International Security and Estonia<\/a>;<\/strong><\/p>\n

prepared and published by the Estonian Information Board<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Estonia, Russia is seen as the most significant threat to Estonian security \u2013 mainly due to the following factors. Russian foreign policy goal is the restitution of its global importance which diminished with the fall of the USSR. It portrays the EU and NATO as organizations hostile to Russia and thus making Russian aggressive actions appear as mere reactions. Maintaining its sphere of influence is also an important objective for Russia.\u00a0 As for the EU, Russia tries to create tensions both between the member states and within them. In order to do so, it uses measures such as influence operations, propaganda, disinformation, or support for extremist and populist parties with an anti-EU stance. In the cybersphere, Russia poses a significant threat not only because of the \u201cinformation confrontation\u201d but also because of the direct cyber attacks, which aim to damage the target or to obtain some information.<\/p>\n

On the domestic level, Russia is experiencing economic hardship (caused mainly by the low price of oil and the Western sanctions) which results in other problems as well. In order to secure its position, Putin is centralizing the power in Russia even more and has made a lot of high-level personnel changes lately. Despite the country\u2019s economic problems, the military is still the second largest expense in the Russian budget and Russia maintains a powerful military potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Central Europe Disinformation Corner<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

(You can read the full report on the\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0of the GLOBSEC Policy Institute)<\/p>\n

The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th<\/sup>\u00a0President of the United States was extensively elaborated by the disinformation outlets in Central Europe. Some media outlets known for spreading distorted and biased information even took Trump’s rhetoric and narratives when reporting on events and international cooperation:<\/p>\n