DISINFO: Europe is supporting Nazism to increase Russophobia
SUMMARY
The Nazism and Fascism of the 1930s and today’s Europe’ support of pro-Nazi movements and parties in the Baltics and Ukraine have in common one thing: targeting the Soviet Union and Russia, and waging all kind of Russophobia. It is supported actively or passively by the West.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative on the West as Russophobic and Nazi. euvsdisinfo.eu/disinformation-cases/?text=Russophobia&disinfo_issue=&date=, euvsdisinfo.eu/the-russophobia-myth-appealing-to-the-lowest-feelings/, euvsdisinfo.eu/disinformation-cases/?text=&disinfo_issue=&disinfo_keywords%5B%5D=77101&date=,
There was in fact a clear record of strong cooperation between the EU and Russia, dating back to 1994, when the two sides negotiated a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. Russia was identified as a strategic partner for the EU, and was the only country with which the EU held summits not once, but twice a year. A new EU-Russia agreement was being negotiated up until 2014, at which point talks were unfortunately suspended due to Russia's involvement in the Ukraine conflict. Negotiations were also in train on visa facilitation. There was also cooperation between the EU and Russia on a number of foreign policy issues, some of which continues to this day. The EU and its Member States have maintained a clear policy of reaching out to Russian society and youth, mainly through the Erasmus+ student exchange programme and other people to people contacts.
NATO consistently worked hard to build a cooperative relationship with Russia since the early 1990s, through the Partnership for Peace and creation of a NATO-Russia Council, and specific cooperation in the Western Balkans on and issues like counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism. In fact, as NATO points out, no other NATO partner has been offered a comparable relationship, nor a similarly comprehensive institutional framework: http://bit.ly/2e0TZnG.
In 1997, Russia was invited to join the G7 group of major advanced economies in the world, thus forming the G8. (At the time, Russia ranked 14th to 17th in the list of countries according to GDP: http://bit.ly/2dWb51l; http://bit.ly/2ejhOpw; http://bit.ly/2dqu4jQ). In 2006, President Putin hosted the G8 summit in Saint Petersburg. Russia's membership of the G8 was suspended in 2014 because of its illegal annexation of Crimea.
Russia joined the Council of Europe, the continent's leading human rights organisation, in 1996.