{"id":5195,"date":"2018-01-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-05T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/europeanvalues.cz\/kremlin-watch-briefing-french-president-will-introduce-a-law-against-the-spread-of-fake-news\/"},"modified":"2021-12-16T12:21:31","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T10:21:31","slug":"kremlin-watch-briefing-french-president-will-introduce-a-law-against-the-spread-of-fake-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/europeanvalues.cz\/en\/kremlin-watch-briefing-french-president-will-introduce-a-law-against-the-spread-of-fake-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Kremlin Watch Briefing: French President will introduce a law against the spread of \u2018fake news\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Topics of the Week<\/h2>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that he will introduce a\u00a0law against the spread of \u2018fake news\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0in order to \u201cprotect democratic life\u201d. The new rules will focus on the\u00a0pre-election period<\/strong>, during which time the removal of false content will be permitted. A further goal is to\u00a0enhance transparency<\/strong>\u00a0by making the identity of sponsors of social media content public. The precise character of the new legislation remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u00a0authorized<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0commercial sale of defensive lethal weapons to Ukraine<\/strong>. The move had broad support from Cabinet officials as well as Congress.<\/p>\n

Vzglyad, an\u00a0ideologically-driven<\/strong>\u00a0online newspaper, published a list of the\u00a0\u201cmost interesting articles of 2017\u201d<\/strong>. According to the list, the sanctions against Russia don\u2019t work and the isolation of Putin\u2019s regime is a myth of Western propaganda.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Gustav Gressel<\/a>, the European Union should not be afraid of Austria taking an anti-European direction. However, he considers it to be a threat that\u00a0Austria may remain part of the European integration project while passing notes to the FP\u00d6\u2019s allies in the Kremlin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Good Old Soviet Joke<\/h2>\n

A New Russian’s son complains to his father: “Daddy, all my schoolmates are riding the bus, and I look like a black sheep in this 600 Merc.”<\/p>\n

His father replies, “No worries, son. I’ll buy you a bus, and you’ll ride like everyone else!”<\/p>\n

US Developments<\/h2>\n

End of year highlights<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Trump administration\u00a0authorized<\/a> the largest US commercial sale of defensive lethal weapons since 2014, totaling $41.5 million. The move had broad support from Cabinet officials as well as Congress.<\/li>\n
  2. Michael Morell, former director of the CIA, and Michael Rogers, former Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee,\u00a0co-authored an op-ed\u00a0<\/a>in\u00a0TheWashington Post<\/em>\u00a0arguing that Russian information attacks via social media are ongoing, and that a primary target is the credibility of the special investigation led by Robert Mueller. Currently, the Russia investigation also faces\u00a0charges of bias<\/a>\u00a0from Republicans on the far right. President Trump has\u00a0recently said\u00a0<\/a>that he believes the Mueller investigation is treating him fairly, but is making the US look \u201cvery bad\u201d.<\/li>\n
  3. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has\u00a0asked\u00a0<\/a>Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Russia lower its levels of violence in eastern Ukraine. Officially, Russia continues to deny that it is operating militarily in eastern Ukraine, despite extensive evidence to the contrary.<\/li>\n
  4. A new national security strategy published by the Trump administration\u00a0asserts\u00a0<\/a>that Russia interferes in the domestic political affairs of other countries, but stopped short of claiming that it meddled in the 2016 US presidential election. The document claims: \u201cThrough modernized forms of subversive tactics, Russia interferes in the domestic political affairs of countries around the world.\u201d<\/li>\n
  5. Two Republican Senators, Ron Johnson and John Barrasso, have\u00a0cancelled a trip<\/a> to Russia after the Kremlin denied a visa to Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who has been a very vocal supporter of legislation against Russia, including the sanctions bill approved by Congress last fall.<\/li>\n
  6. A Russian hacker, Konstantin Kozlovsky,\u00a0claims\u00a0<\/a>that he hacked the DNC on orders from a high-level Russian security official and left personal fingerprints in the DNC servers that will corroborate his story. However, Kozlovsky\u2019s credibility remains\u00a0in question<\/a>. Andrei Soldatov, who has been researching the case for several months, says that he has not found any evidence to support Kozlovsky\u2019s claims. Rather, he says, \u201cthe key question is if Kozlovsky\u2019s been trying to make a deal about his future with FSB \u2013 or he has already made it.\u201d<\/li>\n
  7. The US Marines are\u00a0mobilizing forces<\/a> to improve their efficiency in the new information environment, recently establishing a new Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group (MIG) at all three MEFs. In addition, the Marines published a handbook, the MAGTF Information Environment Operations Concept of Employment, which describes the operational role and functions of the MEF Information Group.<\/li>\n
  8. Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the UN, was\u00a0allegedly pranked\u00a0<\/a>by two Russian comedians pretending to be Poland\u2019s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, and acknowledged the existence of a fictional country, \u2018Binomo\u2019, in whose elections Russia had supposedly intervened. The authenticity of the video has not been confirmed.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    US-based reading suggestions<\/h2>\n
      \n
    1. The Washington Post<\/em>has published a detailed\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0describing how Kremlin trolls ran amok online while Washington policymakers protractedly debated response options.<\/li>\n
    2. The GMF\u2019s Alliance for Securing Democracy has published an article in\u00a0Democracy<\/em>titled \u2018Shredding the Putin Playbook<\/a>\u2019. The article lays out six steps that must be taken by democratic states to enhance cybersecurity in the face of hostile information and influence threats.<\/li>\n
    3. An\u00a0article<\/a> in\u00a0Politico<\/em>\u00a0by Anders \u00c5slund and Daniel Fried describes how a congressional request for a list of Russians with close ties to the Kremlin \u2013 contained within H.R. 3364, the Countering America\u2019s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act \u2013 could be used to exert influence over the Russian government, favorably to US interests.<\/li>\n
    4. The Daily Beast\u00a0<\/em>has published a\u00a0three-part series<\/a> on the KGB\u2019s secret training manual for recruiting spies and its relevance for the present day.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Call for applications: GMF Rethink.CEE Fellowship<\/h2>\n

      The German Marshall Fund\u2019s Alliance for Securing Democracy has issued a\u00a0call for applications<\/a>\u00a0for their new Rethink.CEE Fellowship.<\/p>\n

      From the GMF website:<\/p>\n

      The German Marshall Fund of the United States, through its Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation, is launching a new fellowship program for next-generation policy experts and analysts from Central and Eastern Europe.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Requirements:<\/em><\/p>\n