A rather timely coincidence, in my last blog I explored the way that Russia’s investment in a modern soft power infrastructure is starting to pay off. Slowly but surely, Moscow’s counter-narrative is gaining ground among western audiences. Browsing online today, I stumbled across something that made me wince. “EU needs to earmark money to withstand Russia, say Foreign Affairs MEPs”. If some headlines are stronger than others, then this one is positively flooring.
As it turns out, two days after I published my post, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the EU Parliament approved a resolution which called for “the EU …(to) re-assess its relations with Russia and come up with a “soft-power contingency plan” to counter its “aggressive and divisive policies”.
Among other measures, the MEPs strongly ask for “funding … or specific projects to counter Russian propaganda and misinformation in the EU and abroad” and even suggest to “develop Russian-language alternatives to Russia’s state-controlled media”.
I am not surprised in the slightest. These are attitudes which are widely shared by analysts and policy makers on the continent, and governments have been long gazing at ways to combat the Kremlin’s tight grip on media and its aggressive campaigns abroad. Besides, since the crisis in Ukraine, tensions between Russia and the West have ratcheted up almost to cold war levels and there is no sign of a solution in sight.
May we all live in not too interesting times.
Read the press release at:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-%2f%2fEP%2f%2fTEXT%2bIM-PRESS%2b20150512IPR55015%2b0%2bDOC%2bXML%2bV0%2f%2fEN&language=EN
