Zakharova Lecturing Europe on Democracy and Security with Narratives Full of Disinformation

Borrell’s response to the arrest of the American journalist in St. Petersburg, as well as NATO’s enlargement with Finland, including Sweden’s efforts to do the same, Moscow through its spokesperson Maria Zakharova, used to send two disinformation narratives – to lecture Europe on democracy and to intimidate Europe that it will be “collateral damage” yet again.

In just a few days, the spokeswoman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, delivered two “educational” messages to Europe in order to “smarten up” the countries on the Continent – those belonging to both EU and NATO – but also others that are not members of either Union yet.

Both messages were reported in the Macedonian media area, and since they belong to the classic Russian disinformation narratives they will be briefly covered and pointed out.

The first case was on the last day of March, and the question concerned was about who was the bigger democrat? Namely, acting upon the response of the second person in charge in the EU, Josep Borrell who, on behalf of the EU, condemned the arrest of the “Wall Street Journal” reporter, Evan Gershkovich, in St. Petersburg, Zakharova sent a message to Borrell through Telegram, as reported by Macedonian media, hence to the entire EU with the following words:

Put actions to your words, Josep, stand up for Julian Assange and Marat Kasem – for the sake of balance.

The first case is about the co-founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, who has been imprisoned in the United Kingdom fighting a legal battle to keep him from being extradited to the USA, where he is wanted for high treason due to the publication of hundreds of thousands of confidential documents from American institutions about their political and military action worldwide. The second case is about Marat Kasem, Editor of the Lithuanian edition of the online agency “Sputnik”, Kremlin propaganda tool for info warfare in third countries, where he was arrested last January and is held in custody in Lithuania.

Although Zakharova at the end of the message says “for the sake of balance”, she in fact is using the well-known “whataboutism” tool, whose ultimate goal is to respond to an attack with a counter-question of the type “what about you”.

This is a familiar disinformation narrative by Moscow that can be traced back over the last few years, but it has been actively used, in particular, since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24th February last year, and has been noted in the analyzes of Moscow’s disinformation narratives as early as last October.

Justifying its actions – which are undemocratic and illegal – Moscow is using examples from decades ago. Hence, the invasion and annexation (partial) of Ukraine is justified with the bombing of SR Yugoslavia in 1999, with the predicament of Kosovo after that war, with the involvement of the USA in Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc. In fact, as noted by “Truthmeter”, in the given analysis, Moscow has been using this tool of comparing the situation with Kosovo ever since the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The use of such narrative has been addressed in another “Truthmeter” analysis published in November 2022, as well as in an assessment of the truth of the same narrative sent through a corresponding message from the Russian Embassy in Skopje.

Similar is this case – the arrest of the American citizen and Wall Street Journal reporter in St. Petersburg, and instead of detailed explanations, Moscow finds excuses in the cases of Assange or Kasem, de facto using “what about you” messages – meaning you have no right to talk about the arrested American journalist or about threatened freedoms of media and journalists.

NATO enlargement made Europe unsafe
The second case of applying this classic disinformation narrative was caused by Finland joining NATO as the 31st member-state of the military alliance.

Through the state agency TASS, Zakharova is using Finland’s membership in NATO and Sweden’s efforts to do the same as an excuse to send the message that these European countries are not safe anymore and that it was USA’s fault for that. Pointing out that “America has been promoting everything that is destroying European security for a long time now”, she concludes that the same is true for Finland and Sweden:

That is what happened to North Europe. Neutrality of these countries guaranteed “the aura of security” for many years. With this move (Finland) to join NATO, this era has ended, said Zakharova, as reported in some Macedonian media.

Such statement is an extension of the original Russian assessment that “an appropriate response will follow” after the entry of Finland, is actually part of the narrative that NATO is to blame for the war in Ukraine, because the interests of the USA are in the background and the biggest victim of all will, in actual fact, be the European countries, as a collateral damage of fulfilling American interests. This narrative too was covered by “Truthmeter”last year in October.

De facto, Moscow’s weakness and vulnerability to this narrative is the very fact that the reinforcement of NATO’s armament in Europe as well as its enlargement (with Finland
and Sweden’s request), comes as a direct consequence from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

This article was developed within the framework of the project Promoting Access to Reliable News to Counter Disinformation, implemented by the Metamorphosis Foundation. The article, that has been published on the Macedonian-language version of Truthmeter, was enabled with the support of the American non-profit foundation NED (National Endowment for Democracy). The contents of the article is the responsibility of the author and do not always reflect the positions of Metamorphosis Foundation, NED or their partners.

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