Lawmaker: Russian propaganda efforts disproportionate to anti-Russian campaign

MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/. The image of Russia in the world is artificially distorted, and it must be among the tasks of propaganda to take countermeasures, the head of the Russian upper house’s international affairs committee said on Monday.

Russia’s image "is knowingly and artificially underrated," Konstantin Kosachev said in Pozner TV program on Channel One, noting that "Russian propaganda efforts are so far disproportionate to the campaign waged against Russia".

Western media write on a daily basis about "an oppositionist killed, or an oligarch jailed" in Russia, at the same time hushing up real achievements and successes of the country, he said.

The parliamentarian placed a share of responsibility for that on Russia. "But we don’t deserve the image that Russia is labelled with," he said. "I don’t want to see us put in the pillory," or see some advice imposed on Russia, Kosachev said.

At an EU summit last week, EU leaders stressed the need to challenge what they called "Russia’s ongoing campaign of public disinformation" about the conflict in Ukraine.

An expert letter prepared for the summit said that over the recent years Russia had visibly expanded its broadcasting and Internet activity in western languages, presenting basic European values and rights in a distorted way.

The EU leaders gave EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini until the next summit in June to draw up a plan of action in cooperation with EU member states and the European Commission.

Russia’s EU ambassador Vladimir Chizhov told TASS last November 2014 that a campaign to demonize Russia in Western media was a manifestation of information war.

As part of this information war, Ukraine's SBU security service early in March stripped 100 Russian media organisations of rights to send journalists to all official events at Ukrainian ministries and agencies until Kiev’s military operation in east Ukraine ends.