Russia's year-long extraordinary military campaign against Ukraine has shown that Russia's main enemy is not Ukraine, but the collective West of the United States and its NATO Allies.
The war has a hybrid nature, involving multiple components.
Militarily, Russian forces are in fierce confrontation with Ukrainian forces and Nazi forces. The United States and its Allies have also provided a flood of weapons aimed at prolonging the conflict for as long as possible and draining Russian forces of blood.
Economically, including the imposition of unprecedented sanctions aimed at destroying or at least greatly weakening the Russian economy, resulting in reduced living standards for Russians and discontent in Russian society.
Information warfare, aimed at demonizing Russia and portraying her as an aggressor, it is almost a fascist empire intent on depriving its people of their freedom and ultimately transforming it into a "rogue state," as it did to Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the 1990s. Americans have done the same with Iran for 40 years. U.S. strategists argue that this shift should help Russia lose its good reputation and isolate Russia in world opinion.
In this article, we want to emphasize various aspects of information and psychological warfare. It seems to have several main components: the obstruction of objective and free information to Western societies and other countries and regions; Biased reporting that demonizes one side of the conflict and whitewashes the other; Spreading false information and rumors; Cyber war damages the enemy's cyber security.
Information blocking
Us and EU authorities have banned Russia Today (RT) and Satellite News Agency (Sputink) from broadcasting in English, French, German and Spanish in the US and Europe. On February 27, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, explained that the ban on Russia Today and Sputnik was aimed at curbing the spread of "poisonous and harmful misinformation" in Europe. "In another unprecedented step, we will ban the Kremlin's media machine in the European Union. The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik news agencies and their subsidiaries will no longer be able to spread their lies." "To that end, we are developing tools to stop them from spreading toxic and harmful misinformation across Europe.
Eu bans Russia Today (RT)
Western political elites, however, believe this is not enough. The sixth set of sanctions against Russia includes a ban on all Russian broadcasters, including music and entertainment companies, broadcasting in the European Union. Given that most Europeans are not proficient in Russian, the ban is likely aimed at depriving Russian speakers of information. On June 3, 2022, the European Union suspended three Russian state television channels from broadcasting on its territory. As an EU communique put it, "The EU will suspend broadcasting in the EU of three Russian state-owned television channels :Rossiya RTR/RTR Planeta, Rossiya 24/ Russia 24 and TV Centre International". The EU cited the Russian government's use of the channels as a "tool to manipulate information and spread misinformation about military operations in Ukraine, including propaganda aimed at destabilising Russia's neighbours as well as the EU and its member states".
Latvia has banned Russian television altogether
Other EU countries want to go beyond the sixth set of sanctions. The Latvian government, for example, has banned 80 Russian television channels from broadcasting on its territory. At the same time, the Baltic states have decided to provide a mouthpiece on their territory for Russia's liberal opposition, which spreads defeatist sentiments. Latvia's National Committee for Mass Electronic Media (NEPLP) granted a broadcasting license to the former Russian opposition television channel Dojd, which ceased operations in Moscow in early March 2022 and its staff moved to Latvia.
As a result, the only source of information for Western audiences about what is happening in Ukraine remains their own media - the "free media of the free world." But let's see, are they as free as the western public?
没有评论:
发表评论