DISINFO: Poland and Europe use social engineering to convince their populations that Russian media are dangerous
SUMMARY
For several years, Europe has been trying to use social engineering in order to convince the nations of the continent that “mass information” is primarily a weapon and media (of course, only Russian) can be dangerous. This practice has already been tried in Poland, which is shown by the case of journalists Sviridov and Reshetiev, as well as attacks on Sputnik, which is denied the right to participate in the public debate.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative claiming that the West imposes censorship on Russian media.
The claim that Poland and the EU use some sort of “social engineering” in order to convince its population that Russian media are dangerous is a conspiracy theory. This article also promotes the Kremlin narrative about unfair persecution against Russian journalists and Sputnik in Poland. There is no evidence that Sputnik Polish “is denied the right to participate in the Polish public debate”. This media outlet has quite low popularity in Poland and it is largely perceived as being involved in anti-Polish disinformation activities.
In March 2021, the Polish Counterintelligence Service put Russian journalist Yevgeni Reshetniev on the list of undesirable persons because he was involved in the collection of materials for a Russian, anti-Polish, disinformation campaign.
On 15 March 2021, the Polish authorities decided to prolong the travel ban for Leonid Sviridov (a Russian journalist working in Poland before 2014). The Polish Government decided to expel Sviridov to Russia in December 2015 because he was suspected of espionage in favour of the Russian special services (his case has been reviewed since October 2014). These two well-known people posed a security threat to Poland. Other Russians living in Poland enjoy a normal life.
See other examples of similar messages claiming that Polish media promote the idea that the Russians are not people, but the “agents of the Kremlin”, Poland started another wave of Russophobic political persecution of the Russian journalists and Poland uses security mechanisms in a racist way.