Pavlo Ostapenko

Can Europe counter Putin’s propaganda machine ?

On March 19, EU leaders reached an agreement to start a communications campaign aimed at battling Russia’s steady flow of propaganda, which is seen as a destabilising force in the Ukraine crisis and as hampering European unity as a whole. The initiative, to be finalised by the end of June by the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, will seek to counter Russia’s “disinformation campaigns” and may include efforts to produce and support Russian language broadcasting programs for ethnic Russians in ex-Soviet states.