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Disinfo: Elite and media driven anti-Russia campaign in Poland encourages the purchase of Western weapons

Summary

The Polish political elite and West-owned media concerns carry out a large-scale campaign promoting the anti-Russian attitudes in Poland. Key goal of this campaign is to persuade the Poles that they need expensive Western weapons and natural resources (which are cheaper in Russia). The Polish public opinion is made to support these expensive projects through a threat, real or alleged.

Disproof

This message is a pro-Kremlin narrative on the “elites vs. people” – in this case, the political “elites” of Central and Eastern European countries are fully controlled by the West/USA, manipulating their societies in order to make them anti-Russian. See other examples of this message here, here and here.

The statement that the political elites of Poland and the Western controlled media groups carry out a coordinated policy of spread of the anti-Russian attitudes in Poland is a conspiracy theory.

The position of the main Polish political parties on purchasing Western weapons and the deployment of NATO troops in Poland reflects the Polish public opinion on these issues. For example, 65% of the Poles support the deployment of troops from other NATO countries in Poland, and 81% - fully support the Polish membership in NATO (CBOS NATO poll, March 2019). This poll had shown a substantial increase in public support for the Polish membership in NATO (+19%) immediately after the Russian annexation of Crimea. This fact indicates that the Polish perception of NATO and Russia comes not from alleged “elite” manipulations, but from assessment of aggressive Russian actions in Ukraine by the Polish citizens.

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publication/media

Sputnik Poland (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 168
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 09/10/2019
  • Language/target audience: Polish
  • Country: Russia, Poland
  • Keywords: Anti-Russian, Secret elites / global elites, US presence in Europe, Russophobia, NATO, Conspiracy

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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The Baltic States joined the USSR in accordance with international law

Riga was liberated from Germans in 1944. The liberation of the Baltic states was itself a big operation and several fronts participated in the process. The Baltic states consider that their countries were occupied during 1944-1991. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the incorporation of the Baltic states into the Soviet Union happened in accordance with the international law.

October 14, 2019
Disproof

A recurring attempt of historical revisionism aiming at justifying Soviet actions.

On 23 August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a non-aggression (Molotov-Ribbentrop) pact whose secret protocols divided the territories belonging to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Romania into Soviet and Nazi spheres of influence. The Baltic States were not beneficiaries of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Like other countries mentioned in the pact, they lost their independence and territories. Soviet occupation of the Baltic States lasted for 50 years and resulted in mass deportations and repressions against local populations.

Missile defence system was deployed in Romania without permission

NATO became the tool of foreign policy for the US. Once the state becomes a NATO member, nobody is asking it for permission to deploy certain types of armament. This is how the missile defence system was deployed in Romania and the same is going to happen in Poland.

October 14, 2019
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin narratives on NATO and US global role. This is an example of a narrative shift about the deployment of missile defence systems in Romania and Poland. Before, it was claimed that the US is deploying systems that are capable of launching Tomahawk-type cruise missiles, prohibited by the INF agreement.

In fact, both Romania and Poland agreed to host missile defence systems. In 2010, Romania agreed to host Standard Missile 3 interceptor. As for Poland, Poland and the US signed agreement on the deployment of ground-based ballistic missile defence interceptors on the territory of Poland in 2008, but the project was cancelled following a fierce response from the Polish government. Instead, Aegis Ashore Ballistic Missile Defence System (AABMDS) will be deployed in an anti-missile station in Redzikowo, expected to be completed in 2020.

By staging Euromaidan, the West meant Ukraine to die

Ukrainian Euromaidan was not spontaneous. It was prepared secretly from Ukrainian society from outside Ukraine. This allows considering Euromaidan an orange revolution. The aims of Euromaidan organizers were to change the geopolitical map of Europe, namely, to destroy the Eurasian Union, to tear Ukraine apart from Russia, and to weaken Russia. The latter headed the resistance to Western neo-liberal order.

In this political game, Ukraine became a bargaining chip without any independent value. The revolution organizers reckoned that without Russian ties Ukraine will be ultimately destroyed by inner contradictions. Only a few people in the West were interested in the fate of Ukraine. They wanted Ukraine to make its case and to die. Today’s Ukraine existence is fully dependent on the successful implementation of its only function, namely, to destabilize Russia. Euromaidan’s victory meant that Ukrainian statehood entered into the phase of agony. This agony will continue until Ukraine will preserve any chance to conduct aggressive, anti-Russian politics.

October 14, 2019
Disproof

This publication shares a conspiracy which contains recurring pro-Kremlin narratives about coup d'etat in Ukraine, West-staged colour revolutions, and West's attempts to tear Ukraine apart of Russia and to make it anti-Russian.

There was no coup d’état in Ukraine in 2014. The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was a reaction by numerous segments of the Ukrainian population to former President Yanukovych’s violent dispersal of peaceful student protests against Yanukovych's sudden decision to withdraw from the Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013. See the full debunk here.