MINSK, January 10. /TASS/. The scale and intensity of information wars have reached an unprecedented level, including in the former Soviet space, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) First Deputy Secretary General Leonid Anfimov said.
"Information wars are now underway that are unrivaled in their scale and intensity throughout the entire history of humankind," he said during an awards ceremony for journalists covering CIS events held at the offices of the CIS Executive Committee in Minsk.
Anfimov noted that "harassment perpetrated by media outlets from unfriendly countries" against Belarus, Russia and other CIS states is what happens "when somebody cannot resolve something via political means." In particular, he recalled the persistent attempts of outside forces to artificially sever ties between the countries and peoples of the former USSR.
"Beginning since the 2000s, we have been getting increasingly closer to each other, integrating in various fields of human activity, beginning with the social sphere and ending with the economic one. And the stronger we grow, the more spitefulness emerges among our enemies due to this unity and the integration of our peoples and countries. And, of course, all of these attempts such as color revolutions are accompanied by information wars waged by professionals of a very high caliber through influencing the attitudes of our people," the CIS official said.
According to him, under current conditions, the role of journalists in counteracting color revolutions is very important because usually during such engineered unrest "public opinion is enflamed by means of agenda-driven, biased information." "Information [from journalists] is often the ultimate truth for the people, and a journalist sometimes is more trusted than a government official. And this why a journalist’s role and public stance are so important today in preserving the peace and public tranquility," Anfimov stressed.