On 9 February 2022, a panel discussion on the topic “The Russo-Ukrainian Crisis and North Macedonia” was held, organized by CIVIL – Center for Freedom. Speakers at the discussion were the Ambassador of Ukraine HE Natalia Zadoroznyuk, the Program Manager of the project “Fighting False News Narratives” – FN Rosana Aleksoska, the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University “Vision” – Gostivar and the first woman that obtained a PhD at the Military Academy, Vesna Poposka, as well as the journalists and analysts Aleksandar Nikolic Pisarev and Ljubomir Kostovski.
During her intervention, among the other things, Aleksoska made the following points:
- The statement of the Minister of Defence Slavjanka Petrovska caused an increased activity by pro-Russian agents of influence, portals and infrastructure on social media. In addition, this was complemented by the reaction of the Russian Embassy, which was amplified on the social media to a large extent. Here I would like to state that we were not surprised at all by this reaction, since this is a common tactic used by Moscow. It is paradoxical that the Russian Embassy is “surprised” in a NATO member-state, which made the Euro-Atlantic integration one of its strategic goal since it gained its independence, which historically has enjoyed huge support from the citizens.
- In key moments or events, the technique that is used by Moscow is to flood the information space in order to defocus the public from a constructive debate, to distract the attention from the truth and the substance, which in our case is the position of Ukraine, which contributes to a situation in which the people are confused and do not know what to believe. Certainly, this triggers an emotional reaction as well. In example, in the case of the poisoning of Skripal on British territory, the Russian media controlled by the Kremlin – Russia Today and Sputnik produced and disseminated 138 different and contradicting narratives, by publishing more than 700 articles within a period of 4 weeks. Another example was the disinformation related to the shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17)
- Information operations such as these have several goals: (1) to impose Russia’s worldview through their narratives, (2) to promote Russian disinformation and propaganda, (3) to discredit both domestic institutions and Western allies, and (4) to discourage support, action, or response in favor of Ukraine, and NATO, in our case. Here I would like to appeal to the credible and professional media, as well as to our Government, to continue with their unambiguous support to Ukraine and its citizens, as well as with the activities within NATO.
- Disinformation and information operations are driven by the mistaken opinions, wrong perceptions and misbeliefs by some of the citizens, which to a large extent derive from the lack of information. Here the media play a key role, since they cannot simply transmit the positions of both NATO and Russia. This is exactly the reason for the huge distortion of our information space. What should hold and what is essential in democratic and open societies are the truth and the facts, and these should be presented to citizens, without trying to maintain balance. On the other hand, spreading disinformation and propaganda contributes towards reinforcing of these mistaken opinions, wrong perceptions and misbeliefs.
At the end, Aleksoska stressed that:
- The debate and the support, i.e. the entire struggle for Ukraine actually is support for the stability and security of Europa and the world at large.
- In other words, Russia must not be allowed to impose its own interests against sovereign and independent countries by aggression and the use of force and blackmail.
You may watch the entire discussion on the following link.
