Fighting back against Russia's propaganda war

After 1945, the western democracies were not afraid to take non-military, non-coercive action against Soviet lies and efforts to occupy political space in the democratic world to promote

Stalinist tyranny.

Today two decades of “end of history” naivety or the view that if Goldman Sachs could open an office and help elites get rich, liberal democracy was assured, are finally coming to an end.

So what now is to be done? After 1945, a policy of containment took the democratic fight to the enemy of democracy. Russian lies were countered by democratic truth, both within the

democracies and also directly to Russia, via the BBC’s World Service, Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe.

The EU set up its grandly named “EastStratCom” agency in 2015 to counter Russian disinformation, but seven years later no-one can find anything it has done. The European Court of Auditors

last year published a damning report on the lack of coordination and funding of “EaststratCom”.

The French government set up its own counter-disinformation agency, as two of the contenders in presidential election next month, Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour, defend Putin. Le Pen’s

party, the National Rally, has been financed by the Kremlin, just as the UK’s ruling Conservative Party has taken £2.3 million in donations from Russians under Boris Johnson.

There are regular warnings from intelligence chiefs or Commons select committees about Russian disinformation and fake news campaigns, aimed at tilting voters towards the desired political

ends or politicians favoured by the Kremlin.

But so far the response of the West has been to wring its hands, collect examples of disinformation, and then do nothing except moan.

So far there is no new 21st-century thinking about how to deal with the Kremlin’s constant aggression and interference in the affairs of European nations, both EU and non-EU member states

alike.

But are the democracies so utterly helpless? A new proposal being discussed is to launch Magnitsky-style social media campaigns, which would be directed against Russian politicians,

officials, oligarchs and others who violate human rights. Such campaigns could also target propagandists who pump out lies and disinformation to sow division in the democracies.

The idea is for the EU, the UK or the US to create their own social media “truth warriors”. They would be charged with spreading news on social media outlets read by Russian citizens about

the unacceptable behaviour of their own leaders.

But will the US, EU or UK have the will and the energy to act and take the struggle to their opponents? An invasion and occupation of all or part of Ukraine might be a spur to action. Sadly,

however, based on past experience, it is more likely that the Western democracies will just sit around wringing hands.

Different groups and private sector outfits who know how to run effective social media campaigns that would take the fight to Putin have put forward proposals, but so far NATO or EU

governments have remained passive.

Must the free world remain quiescent and nervous in defending democracy against the new campaigns by the Kremlin? Or will we fight back with the most powerful weapon of all — the truth?

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