DISINFO: Putin is winning and Europe will have to ease sanctions on Russia, says Politico
DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS
  • Outlet: es.news-front.info (archived)*
  • Date of publication: September 12, 2022
  • Article language(s): Spanish
  • Reported in: Issue 308
  • Countries / regions discussed: EU, Russia
Tags:
Vladimir Putin Sanctions Mainstream media

DISINFO: Putin is winning and Europe will have to ease sanctions on Russia, says Politico

SUMMARY

Putin confronted European leaders with the bitter truth, says Politico. According to this outlet, the strategy of the Russian president will force European countries to ease sanctions. His policy led the EU to understand that sooner or later the West will have to ease sanctions on Russia, wrote Matthew Karnihnig in an article for this outlet. The coming storm puts European leaders in face of a bitter truth: while Russia and Ukraine fight each other, the Kremlin is defending against Europe. According to Karnitschnig, a top European Commission official confirmed that “there is no doubt that Putin is winning in this regard”.

RESPONSE

This is a deliberate distortion of the original article published by Politico Europe on 08 September 2022. None of these sentences attributed to this publication appear in the original story, titled “Putin’s attack on democracy is working. Just look at Europe”. The article says that the Kremlin is succeeding in its efforts to stir up polarisation and undermining democracy, but not that Europe or the West “will be forced to ease sanctions”. It doesn’t say either that “the Kremlin is defending against Europe”, nor that any European Commission official confirmed this aspect. Regarding to this quote, the article actually states: “The main goal of [Russia’s] efforts is not to convert Europeans into supporters of Russia (though the Kremlin would welcome that), but rather to polarize and destabilize Western politics to such a degree that voters don’t know what to believe. “There’s no question that Putin is winning in this regard,” said a senior Commission official.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in the 2022 State of the Union speech that "war is raging in Europe ... and sanctions are here to stay".

Distorting articles in Western media to make them appear as supporting pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives is a frequent technique of pro-Kremlin outlets. See other examples in our database, such as false claims that The New York Times reports that Russia is barely affected by sanctions, that Germany doesn’t trust Zelenskyy according to Der Spiegel, that The National Interest explained why the US should side with Russia in Ukraine; or that Foreign Policy explained why Washington needs a “Russian intervention”.

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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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