ZHELEZNOVODSK, June 28. /TASS/. Russian Union of Journalists Chairman Vladimir Soloviev believes Russia has been wrongly labelled the loser in the information war with the West, and that domestic media's success in this area is underscored at the very least by Russians' staunch trust in President Vladimir Putin.

"They say we have lost the information war. But, if this is true, it is so only in the external environment because our external-facing information efforts are effectively non-functional given that it is virtually impossible to break through all of the [Western media] bans and restrictions. <...> However, on our domestic territory, according to public opinion polling and the level of trust in our president, it is clear that our media outlets have not lost this war after all," he said at the New Reality-2023 international festival, which is taking place in Zheleznovodsk, Stavropol Region, on Wednesday.

Having a single coordinating center in Russia could be an important means of countering the activities of the Ukrainian Center for Information and Psychological Operations (CIPSO), which is one of the main actors in the information war, said Alexander Sladkov, a military correspondent for Rossiya (VGTRK) television. "As for counteracting CIPSO, we do not have a single coordination center, where everyone is linked into a single system and everyone is involved in the information war. <...> We have centers that organize ideological education and information work. But, when one is at war, one must be creative in waging that war, and so we need to consolidate our efforts to win in the information field here and now," he said at the festival.

According to Sladkov, [the depiction of things] in Russia’s information field has from the outset [of the conflict] been more honest than in Ukraine. "We have a more honest approach; we provide information, whereas they use the information field as a means of attack. We do not call [dead soldiers’ relatives] or talk about the dead; our work does not involve large call centers or feeding misinformation to the population," he noted.

The war correspondent also emphasized that information wars and media work are different things. "We are talking about an information war, not about informing the population. We already have the last one, and it is well established. An information war and the work of the media, contrary to popular belief, are not the same thing. Our profession is news. Other work must go on in parallel. As far as the information war is concerned, this is another form of creativity, another technology, and other specialists. This calls for psycholinguistics, psychology, physiognomy and other [disciplines]," he said.

About the festival

The New Reality - 2023 international festival, which features a competition of documentaries and TV programs, will take place in Zheleznovodsk, Stavropol Region, on June 26-29. The festival is being organized by the Russian Union of Journalists and the project is being carried out with the support of the Presidential Fund of Cultural Initiatives.