DISINFO: The West needs cases like Navalny to fill its information wars
SUMMARY
The main obsession of European leaders has been to get Russia to pay a price for the luxury of living its own style, without consulting anyone. It is clear that if the West invests millions in information wars, it needs concrete cases to cover, to try to pit the public opinion against Russia. According to this approach, the Navalny case fills all the requirements. This is not a struggle for democracy or human rights, but a global power struggle. And it is clear that the EU will never be its main beneficiary, since its role is being reduced to be a mere instrument of the US global policy.
RESPONSE
This is a mix of several recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the West waging information wars in order to destabilise Russia, about the case of Alexei Navalny as a fabrication, and about Europe as a vassal of the US.
All the claims are false. “Information war” is a term used by the Kremlin to justify its own disinformation efforts, applied to anything that challenges its disinformation narratives or for calling out Russia’s illicit behaviour in the international stage. By claiming that the Navalny case “fills the requirement of an information war against Russia” and that it has nothing to do with democracy or human rights but with a global power struggle, this narrative aims to deflect any Russian responsibility for Alexei Navalny’s poisoning, his incarceration on politically motivated charges and the repression of demonstrations in his support.
Contrary to the claim about the EU’s submission to the US, the European Union is a sovereign entity, created by the voluntary initiative of European nations, and it has its own, independent foreign policy. Its citizens are directly represented in the European Parliament and Member States are represented in the European Council and the Council of the EU. The United States of America is not part of these institutions. The US has no say in its decisions.
See other examples of these disinformation narratives, such as claims that the EU created a “Ministry of Lies”, that the West is using Navalny to access Russia’s resources, that the US targets Russian sovereignty through Navalny and European puppets, or that NATO instructed Navalny followers to organise the next illegal protests in Russia.