MOSCOW, November 23. /TASS/. The European Parliament’s resolution on combating other countries’ propaganda demonstrates liberal European elites’ weakness and fear over losing their information monopoly, head of Russia’s Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Interim Commission for Information Policy Alexei Pushkov told reporters on Wednesday.
He noted that the resolution was aimed at whipping up the so-called Russian information threat while the Russian media have very limited access to the EU information market. According to Pushkov, this shows that most of the European Parliament members "have a pathological fear of information competitiveness and are not ready for it." "It also testifies to the weakness of liberal European elites that have found themselves unable to tackle a number of serious challenges including those their own inefficient policies have led to," he said adding that instead of trying to find an appropriate response to these challenges, the European Parliament members "give in to political hysteria."
Pushkov also said that "Russia’s policies are not to blame for the difficulties the liberal elites in the European Union have been facing, but their own political failures are the reason." "However, they prefer to turn a blind eye to this focusing on creating the Russian information threat myth rather than searching for a way out of the crisis," the Russian senator concluded.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution aimed at combating other countries’ propaganda, including Russia. A total of 691 MPs were present at the session, 304 of whom voted in favor of the resolution, 179 voted against it while 208 abstained from voting.
On October 10, the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs approved a report on combating propaganda which named the Russian media one of the main threats. The document mentioning some Russian media in particular, was prepared by a Polish member of the European Parliament, Poland’s former Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga. According to her, Russia’s authorities have been using a wide range of tools and instruments to attack Western values and sow discord among European Union member states.
The resolution of the European Parliament mentions Russian TV channel RT, Sputnik agency, Russkiy Mir (or Russian World) Foundation and the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo).
Russian Foreign Ministry’s Envoy for Human Rights, Democracy and the Supremacy of Law Konstantin Dolgov said in this connection that the resolution stipulates discrimination and violation of international law.