Countries – Page 4

Anti-Western Narratives: The Fall of the Old World

Narrative

Anti-Western narratives in Azerbaijan embraced topics that dealt with the possible decay of the European project especially in comparison to the vibrant and active presence of Russia and China in the region. In an attempt to prove the low efficiency of democracy, pro-Kremlin websites insisted on messages that suggest the fall of the old European world as we knew it.

The leading states of European Union, such as Germany, are said to experience a dramatic turn. According to the anti-Western narratives palette, the EU’s management of the crisis revealed the EU’s moral decay: i.e. lack of solidarity with countries in need (Italy), supremacy of political priorities over humanitarian needs, especially in the case when the EU refused to abolish sanctions imposed on Russia.

The situation may get out of hand in Germany
Source: Sputnik Azerbaijan

Opinions often take the stance that the world order will change after the pandemic and the European globalists will find it difficult to be persuasive enough about the supremacy and advantages of a united Europe since it has been completely unprepared to face the pandemic. The case of Italy illustrates clearly the decorative character of the so called European Union.

The world fell into a systemic crisis – how coronavirus destroyed the mythical unity of the West
Source: Sputnik Azerbaijan

Viktor Orban: The pandemic showed the lack of unity among the EU states
Source: Oxu.az

Dissemination

Pro-Kremlin local websites

Dissemination of anti-Western messages is the responsibility of pro-Kremlin websites that operate mainly in Russian, as well as in Azeri. Sputnik Azerbaijan proved to have a rich palette of narratives that has been simultaneously spread throughout the region. Another local website that operates in Russian, Oxu.az, published an article that discredits the image of the EU having as example the case of Hungary. The article cites the words of Viktor Orban that the pandemics showed the lack of any unity in the EU, as Hungary benefited from more help from China than from the EU.

State actors

At the level of state actors, some deputies expressed publicly their approval of the undertaken quarantine measures that proved efficient in Azerbaijan: “That’s why we could control the spread of the virus, unlike some European states”

Target group

Anti-EU narratives target pro-Russian and pro-government populations. Some narratives, titles and images are thought-provoking enough to make those who are neutral about the EU to reconsider their position and choose for the more “visible and vibrant” presence of other international actors.

Disproof

Anti-EU propaganda in Azerbaijan can be countered with official data with regard to financial aid provided by the EU to the states of the Eastern Partnership. Thus, the EU offered over €31 million to support immediate and short-term needs. Precisely, with the EU funds, vocational education schools in several regions will purchase equipment to produce protection equipment for medical staff.

Interestingly, there is no specific visible propaganda with regard to NATO or international institutions, such as the IMF. On 4th of May, Sputnik published an article that cites the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan that states that the country is determined to continue cooperation with the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) to protect peace and security in the Euro-Atlantic region and beyond. Besides, Poland, a EU and NATO member state provided medical equipment to Azerbaijan.

Coronavirus response: Poland provides Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan with medical supplies to fight the global pandemic
Source: Nato.int

Ukraine

Overview

Since 2014 Ukraine has been one of the main targets of the Russian propaganda machine, following the Revolution of Dignity which marked the pro-Western orientation of the country. The main narratives reveal Ukraine as a failed or a fascist state that is under the external influence of foreign governments or international organizations.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought in Ukraine the same palette of narratives promoted in other countries with an accent on the anti-Western messages. The pro-Kremlin propaganda promotes that the West won’t be able to help Ukraine within the crisis, that the European Union will fall apart, or that the coronavirus is an invention of the West. In contrast, pro-Russian media channels pushed for the classic narratives on how Russia was providing humanitarian aid to European countries and how “humane” it is with statements to let go of any geopolitical principles and unite to fight the virus. Additionally, a strong wave of criticism was directed at the current government of Ukraine that, according to the pro-Russian opposition, had proved poor performance. In the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which are the regions where Ukrainian media transmissions are being blocked, Russian propaganda dominates the informational space. Local media outlets were engaged in promoting pro-Russian and anti-Western narratives. Speaking of geopolitical aspects, experts notice that the pro-Chinese propaganda was no that visible, however through small diplomatic steps and loud pro-Kremlin messages, a positive portrayal of China was achieved.

Ukraine witnessed the spreading of conspiracy theories and the growth of anti-vaccine movements, especially in social media. Main conspiracies regarded Bill Gates, 5G network, and the artificial nature of coronavirus, precisely that it was artificially created in a U.S. laboratory on the territory of Ukraine. There were fakes and manipulation on statistics, ordinary people encouraging not to trust official numbers, but look for alternative ways of treatment instead.

Another tactic of Russian infowar was to exaggerate negatively the situation, especially regarding the economic situation of the country as businesses were affected by the lockdown measures.
An episode that made Ukraine popular in the region is the wave of local protests in a Ukrainian town where the first travelers returning from China should have been placed in quarantine. The inhabitants of the town received messages and emails that incited hatred and aggression towards making their town a quarantine spot for those who arrive from China.

It is considered that the government reshuffle in early March (which coincided with the COVID-19 outbreak in the country) slowed down the initial reaction of the authorities to the crisis in addition to the fact that the country was dealing with large foreign debt repayments and stalled negotiations with the IMF – conditions that only fueled the anti-Western messages of Kremlin players.

Ukraine had imposed total quarantine measures and since May, Ukraine has chosen the “adaptive quarantine” option meaning that most of the restrictions have been lifted, but in the areas, with high infection rates, all quarantine restrictions are to be maintained. Decisions on easing or return to more severe measures in cities or regions are to be taken by local and regional authorities which are also part of the Ukrainian decentralization process.

Sources

Atlantic Council: Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine: COVID-19 disinformation in Eastern Europe
OECD: COVID-19 crisis in Ukraine

Moldova

Overview

The Republic of Moldova remains one of the European countries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The distrust in the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic has been fuelled not only by disinformation campaigns originating in Russia, but also by the fact that politicians, among whom President Igor Dodon and members of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova, endorsed these messages, as did representatives of the Moldovan Orthodox Church, pro-Russian mainstream media or numerous other obscure religious or nationalist sites.

Together, these actors disseminated not only anti-European and pro-Russian narratives, but also conspiracy theories. Chisinau remains a testing ground for Russian influence in Eastern Europe, with local politicians and local media promoting Russian and anti-European narratives. Moldova has little resilience to Russian propaganda, being one of the countries most exposed and most vulnerable to Kremlin’s information war.

Moldova scores highest among all Eastern Partnership countries in terms of vulnerability of its population to pro-Russian propaganda. Although its population has been relatively equally split in recent years between pro-European and pro-Eastern, Russian language broadcasts predominate, which is also a result of the lack of alternatives.

Most TV stations are dominated by Russian language content, all major Russian channels are rebroadcast, Romanian channels are almost absent, and 25 out of 45 programmes are broadcast in Russian3 . Even so, according to latest EU Neighbours East annual report (2020), 63% of Moldovans have the greatest trust in the European Union. In Chisinau, however, political leadership and pro-Russian media are working to fabricate a different reality and to undermine trust in the EU. The COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for intense dissemination of anti-European and pro-Russian narratives.

For a full report on the impact of COVID-19 disinformation campaigns in Chisinau please read “Disinformation and propaganda in the management of the COVID-19 crisis in the Republic of Moldova“, published by the Romanian Center for European Policies.

Political landscape

Igor Dodon is the current President of the Republic of Moldova. He has been in office since 2016. He is also the informal leader of the pro-Russian Socialist Party, although during the November 2020 elections, he ran as an independent candidate. The prime-minister of the country is Ion Chicu, a former adviser to the President, who took on the role in November 2019 after a vote of no confidence against the pro-European government led by Maia Sandu. Even though the government was promoted as technocratic, it repeatedly compromised its image with a set of unpopular decisions and statements that worsened the internal and external situation of the country during the state of emergency. The current pro-Russian leadership sought to undermine the importance of foreign aid provided by the European Union and, particularly, by Romania.

Media & Legislation

Moldova ranks 91 out of 180 countries in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index. As of 2019, Reporters Without Borders assessed the media in the Republic of Moldova as polarized:

The editorial line of the leading media outlets correlates closely with the political and business interests of their owners, a problem that is particularly striking during election campaigns – a phenomenon which Moldovans have been noticing lately, as 2020 is an election year in the Republic of Moldova.

According to the Disinformation Resilience Index developed throughout 2017 – 2018, Moldova scored 3.2 on a scale from 0 to 4 for exposure and susceptibility of its population to Kremlin-led media – ranking as one of the most exposed countries to pro-Kremlin propaganda.

According to a survey conducted by WatchDog.md, the top 3 most important sources of information for Moldovans are:
Television – 77.2%
Websites – 42.2%
Social media – 35.7%

Most television channels are dominated by Russian-language broadcasts. Data from 2017, for example, shows that 25 out of 45 high-rated programmes are broadcast in Russian. These are usually rebroadcast from Russian channels or Soviet-produced feature films and series produced in the Russian Federation.

Russian media is present in the Republic of Moldova through TV stations with similar names and with broadcasting licenses in Moldova. The most popular include: Pervyi Canal / Prime, NTV, Ren TV, RTR, STS, TNT.

Social networks: Facebook, Odnoklassniki, Instagram, Telegram, Twitter.

Top 3 ranking:
Facebook – 29,7%
Odnoklassniki – 18,7%
Instagram – 15,8%

NTV and Accent TV, through their editorial content, indicate a strong preference for the Party of Socialists, with much coverage of events and politics in the Russian Federation.

The Security and Intelligence Service of the Republic of Moldova blocked over 50 sites that published or shared fake news during the state of emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, with the end of the state of emergency, the normative acts banning the websites lost enforceability.