Russia’s envoy to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said Moscow
is currently winning the war
BRUSSELS, September 16. /TASS/. Russia and the West are now engaged in the active phase of information war, and Moscow is winning, Russia’s envoy to the EU Vladimir Chizhov has told TASS in an interview.
The diplomat said the fact that the success is on the Russian side raises fears in the West.
"If we speak impartially, then the information war elements have been always present. And now taking into consideration the general political situation, of course, it is more active than earlier," Chizhov said.
"For many years and decades, we were inferior in this battle both due to efficiency and the ability to use technical means. Now our information space has become much more attractive for the consumers of information in the West," the diplomat said.
Russia’s journalists and media managers hold the credit for this, but there are also other objective reasons behind this process: the Western audience needs the alternative viewpoint, Chizhov said.
"This demand creates a niche where our TV channels and news agencies are acting more and more successfully," he said.
"I’m not saying that everything is ideal, there is still a long way to go, but the Russian mass media are acting more and more successfully. The fact that our opponents dislike this is rather natural," Chizhov added.
The EU has no consensus on the prospective response to Russia’s information warfare, Chizhov said. The Baltic states have already asked for money to finance the Russian-language TV channel.
"In this context, Finland, their closest neighbor which used to be a sponsor not so long ago, said: "You should have thought before closing the Russian-language mass media outlets."
Finland has a Russian-language TV channel and six radio stations, he said.
The EU has announced that a team of specialists would start working in September to "counter misinterpretation of information on the EU policy" in the Russian-language media space.
The target audience is the Eastern Partnership countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The European Parliament calls this body a counter-propaganda group.
Source: ITAR-TASS
16-09-2015
