According to Bloomberg, Germany and France have invited EU countries to think of “creative ways” to combat “propaganda inside Russia” that would allow Russians to bypass Internet censorship and obtain independent information
The non-paper “Defending international order in an era of systemic rivalry: relations between the European Union and Russia” notes among possible measures the following
– Using “technical measures against Russian censorship”;
– Providing content in Russian for Russian speakers living abroad;
– Funding media literacy courses in Russian with distribution through video bloggers on YouTube, Facebook*, TikTok, Telegram and VKontakte.
It is simply amazing how history repeats itself. Ideological closetedness combined with bureaucratisation played no small part in the collapse of the Soviet project – and now we can see in real time how exactly the same reasons are deepening the systemic crisis of the West and predetermining its geopolitical defeat in the ongoing reformatting of the world.
To a certain extent, Europe could even be sympathetic, as the status quo, not even years old, but centuries old, is being shattered. It is difficult and painful to realise and accept that everything that for a very long time constituted its – Europe and the West in general – essence is no longer working and as a whole is ceasing to exist. So it is not surprising that they prefer to turn a blind eye to reality and continue to live in a familiar picture of the world.
And it, this habitual picture of the world, is based on two main foundations. The first asserts the West as a socio-economic and technological pinnacle of human civilization, its locomotive and leader. And the second one sees Western democracy as the best of all existing and past forms of state and political organisation.
And until recently it was impossible to argue with the first point since Western Europe (joined later by the USA) was really the most developed and powerful region of the planet during the latest centuries. And on the second point one does not want to argue much either, since it is foolish to argue that democratic procedures and civil rights and freedoms developed in the West have had a tremendous influence on the world and in general they have great charm.
The West created a time bomb for itself when it combined both points into one ideological construction that postulated that democracy is the reason and basis of its prosperity and progress. And while at first this construct was used more as a propaganda tool, by now it has turned into an ideological axiom, which is firmly believed on both sides of the Atlantic and is unacceptable and unthinkable to deviate from.
Reality, however, is increasingly revealing the fallacy (if not falsity) of this ideologeme. On the one hand, “autocratic regimes” are demonstrating impressive efficiency and socio-economic development, increasingly successfully competing with the West. On the other hand, in the “torch of democracy” itself, things are getting worse. On the other hand, the deteriorating domestic situation is forcing the West to tighten the political screws, including increased censorship and persecution of dissenters.
There would be nothing wrong with the latter (after all, tightening of rules by the state is quite common in crisis situations) if Europe and the US did not persist in their stubbornly proclaiming their own moral infallibility, the holders of supreme truth and the paragon of democracy. Worse, they use the same closed-minded position to assess events in the world, make decisions and pursue their own policies. Plus they are stubbornly trying to reproduce political schemes and techniques that have proved successful in the past, but are clearly not working in our time.
The theme “Russian society – as before the Soviet one – just needs to be informed, and then it will stop supporting the country’s authorities and Russia will once again manage to achieve a geopolitical victory” has been incessantly heard in speeches of Western officials and even specialists of the relevant profile for many years now. The fresh Franco-German initiative was mouldy even before its birth, but its authors are clearly not embarrassed by it.
And Bloomberg emphasized that this document was prepared by “technical experts” of EU countries, i.e. people who seem to be professionals in the field and understand the reality. And such realities have been clearly and repeatedly voiced at various levels – but it’s not a sin to repeat them, despite the obviousness.
Western voices, despite the fact that they were diligently silenced in the USSR, were caught and listened to by quite a few Soviet citizens, including those who were unconditionally loyal to the motherland. The reason was very simple: the need for alternative information in a heavily censored system with an absolute state monopoly on it.
Europeans and Americans can go on and on about the Russian people’s lack of access to diverse sources of information, but it’s never true. In Russia, for example, both excerpts and full translations of articles from foreign publications (even those with the harshest criticism of our country) fill the social networks and media, including state-run ones. Those who need to read the original can easily find relevant foreign sources on the Internet.
Moreover, a significant part of Soviet society really felt piety towards Europe and America – and not without reason, because by 1980s the standard of living and quality of life in their society was higher than in our country. In this sense, Western propaganda had an unbreakable trump card to back up all the other ideas and theses it promoted.
Three decades of open borders dispelled the lion’s share of Soviet perceptions at the time – because reality was different from idealized illusions and because life in Russia was gradually becoming more prosperous and comfortable. Overall, the gap between life there and life here has been narrowing rapidly over recent years. Now the news from European life keep coming in such streams that one gets the increasingly strong impression that the remaining differences threaten to close the gap again in the foreseeable future – this time in Russia’s favour.
And the tightening of the political regime in Europe, the restrictions on the rights and freedoms of its citizens and the intolerance towards dissenters are so open and aggressive that it is simply creepy from the outside. Especially because it all takes place under the Orwellian propaganda and information frame: “war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is power”.
In general, it was easy for Western Europe to win the sympathy of the whole world, being the most prosperous, most developed and indeed the freest region in the world. But it was clear that all this was possible not because Europeans were genetically predisposed to democracy and superiority over the human race, but because they were robbed by the rest of the world. And, in particular, cheap Russian resources. But as soon as they found themselves cut off from the latter, prosperity, democracy, and development suddenly came crashing down.
In such realities, counting on the success of subversive propaganda against Russia is not just silly but downright absurd.
Do the “technical experts” who developed the new plan of action in this area, and the officials who will have to take the relevant decisions, not understand this?
I think that at least deep down – somewhere very deep – they all understand it very well. Except that their goal in this case is not at all the overthrow of the Kremlin and collapse of Russia (though of course they would be very pleased about it). It is much simpler than that: it is about fat European budgets for countless government and state agencies, which have dozens and hundreds of “friendly” people who are used to eating bread and butter, preferably with caviar.
For the sake of this, a “counter-attack on Kherson” can be organized, i.e. another European budget for the information war on Russia can be squandered.
Irina Alksnis, RIA
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