The possibility that the West, indeed the world, is aware that the Russian propaganda machine is churning out tons and tons of blatant, fabricated, untruthful, and unmitigated propaganda and is subsequently ignoring it is not offered.
Perhaps the West ignoring Russian propaganda is an unspoken result of the avalanche of the “firehose of falsehood”. Perhaps even the media recognizes the products of Russian propaganda. Perhaps the media and the people know that Russian propaganda has created a myriad of faux news sites, news sites that are untrustable, which has resulted in people recognizing Russian propaganda. Perhaps it is not a conscious recognition but it has effectively neutered the Russian message.
Our first indication Russian propaganda was not effective was the Pew Report of August 2015. Subsequent reports, such as this one, reinforce those findings.
Russia is also bluffing with the military maneuvers, incursions, and provocations. The leaders of the Western world appear to recognize that simple truth. Repeated statements by Putin and Lavrov of “we have nukes” has been met with skepticism. Repeated wargames in close proximity to borders with Western countries has not resulted in leaders panicking and screaming in fear – quite the opposite, in fact.
The Russian propaganda machine is going to continue churning out their fetid products and will continue to spread their odoriferous products, in a pathetic attempt to sow distrust, undermine unity, and promote Russian national interests. Russia will continue to try to impress the West with an expensive display of military power in Syria, where there is no resistance.
Russia wants respect, but their gestures and words are impotent.
</end editorial>
BRATISLAVA, 3. NOV, 17:53
Germany’s former spy chief has said Russian propaganda was failing to make an impact in Europe and that Russian intelligence services were weaker than imagined.
Augustus Henning, the former head of Germany’s BND intelligence service, said Russia was “trying to influence public opinion” in the EU, but was “doing it in a not very sophisticated way. If we look at German media, they are not very successful in the mainstream media and political parties”.
“We see that Russian TV is sometimes far away from the truth and that’s a problem,” he told EUobserver in an interview at the Tatra summit, a conference in Bratislava, last Saturday (29 October).
“The best way to respond is for our own media to give an objective picture of the situation”, he said.
“We live in open societies and the open society in Germany, in Europe, is our best weapon against all these attempts to influence public opinion”, he added.
Henning said that the US and China also try to sway hearts and minds in Europe and that Russia’s input had a “balancing” effect.
“The Chinese try to gain influence … the Americans heavily influence our public opinion, therefore, to a certain extent, it [Russian propaganda] is balancing”, he said.
Czech intelligence services, in a recent report, said that, in parallel to the propaganda campaign, Russian spies had built up an “infrastructure” of sympathisers that posed a threat to the country’s stability.
Its BIS intelligence service said “these activities pose a threat to the Czech Republic, the EU, and Nato” because Russia could “destabilise or manipulate Czech society or its political environment at any time”.
Henning said: “I don’t see that Czechia is really challenged by Russia, nor is Poland’s internal structure. I don’t think Russia is so strong in the West”.
He said that no matter how much Russia spent on media or other influence operations, it had an Achilles heel.
“The problem for Russia is that they don’t offer a very attractive model of society or the economy”, Henning said.
“If Russia was an attractive model for the Ukrainians, they wouldn’t have these kinds of problems. Why don’t the Ukrainians want to stick with Russia, why are they moving to the West? Because our model is far more attractive than the Russian model”, he said.
Ukrainian people, in 2014, rebelled against their pro-Russian leader in protest over gross corruption and human rights abuses.
Russian media said the revolution was a US-manufactured coup.
Hanning’s assessment goes against an emerging consensus that Russian intelligence poses a threat to EU stability.
Andrew Parker, the head of the UK’s domestic intelligence service, MI5, told The Guardian, a British newspaper, on Tuesday that Russia was becoming “increasingly aggressive” in Europe.
“It is using its whole range of state organs and powers to push its foreign policy abroad in increasingly aggressive ways – involving propaganda, espionage, subversion and cyber-attacks. Russia is at work across Europe and in the UK today. It is MI5’s job to get in the way of that”, he said.
EU leaders, at a summit in Brussels last month, also raised the alarm.
“Leaders emphasised all sorts of concerns, from [Russia’s] airspace violations, to its disinformation campaigns, cyber-attacks, its interference in the electoral processes of the EU and beyond”, EU Council chief Donald Tusk said after the meeting.
The EU will, in December, decide whether to extend the duration of economic sanctions on Russia.
The measures were imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and amid suspicion that Russia-controlled forces shot down the MH17 civilian airliner in 2014.
With Russia also accused of slaughtering civilians in Syria, there was little mood at the October summit to relax the Ukraine-linked sanctions.
Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, on Wednesday said Greece, one of the most Russia-friendly EU states, had come down on its side, however.
“We really appreciate Greece’s stance to not agree with the policy of sanctions”, he said in Athens.
The Greek foreign minister, Nikos Kotzias, said “countries such as Germany, Greece, and France … [also] want an understanding with Russia”.
Source: https://euobserver.com/foreign/135762
Filed under: #RussiaFail, #RussiaLies, CounterPropaganda, Information operations, Russia Tagged: #RussiaFail, #RussiaLies, CounterPropaganda, information warfare, Russia, Russian propaganda
