Brussels, 09/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - The UK, Denmark, Estonia and Lithuania have said they believe that the EU should react in order to respond to Russia's “propaganda campaign” amid tensions in the Ukrainian crisis.
“Russia is rapidly increasing its disinformation and propaganda campaign, as an asymmetric response to Western economic power”, the four countries' foreign ministers state in a letter obtained by French news agency AFP. “At the same time in Russia the free media is suppressed by the government, intimidated and pushed out of the public sphere, when foreign media outlets are discriminated and forced to close”, they write.
Diplomatic sources have told EUROPE, however, that work on this letter is still ongoing in the capitals of the four countries.
The letter to Federica Mogherini, the European Union's foreign policy chief, warns that the Russian “propaganda aims at hindering the EU and Western unity”. It calls on the European External Action Service (EEAS) to prepare a plan for 2015-2016 that would include alternatives for Russian speakers.
The EU and Ukraine accuse Russia of waging an “information war” to justify Moscow's intervention in Ukraine. Russia in turn has launched a television channel in the UK and a foreign news service called Sputnik.
The four countries want the EU to provide credible information alternatives to Russian-speaking populations and those using Russia's state-controlled media.
Russian-speaking minorities represent around a quarter of the population in the Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia, and around 6% in Lithuania.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's pledge to protect compatriots beyond the country's borders and his readiness “to revisit history” has spooked the region that is scarred by decades of Soviet occupation. (LC)