EU Commission launches new tool to counter Russian propaganda

The European Commission wants to help people recognise fake news, including Russian propaganda about the Ukraine war, with a new educational resource launched on Monday.

Russian disinformation about the invasion of Ukraine had tried “to create confusion and divert attention away from Russia’s aggression and its war crimes,” a commission statement said.

“Such disinformation is “manipulative in character, conducted in an intentional and coordinated manner” to undermine and harm political processes,” according to the commission’s diplomatic service.

The new resource called “Learn” on the euvsdisinfo.eu website, explains disinformation tactics with insight into the Kremlin media system.

Visitors to the sight could receive instruction on how to identify disinformation as well as training to prevent spreading false information further with quizzes and games.

EUvsdisinfo.eu was launched back in 2015 to help the EU identify and monitor Russia’s manipulation campaigns targeting the bloc and to help educate the public to respond.

The EU had identified disinformation as a “growing political and security challenge” for the bloc and in recent months has worked hard to counter the Kremlin’s narrative about EU sanctions on Russia.

Kremlin propaganda claimed EU economic sanctions on Russian exports caused global food prices to surge.

In response, the EU had repeatedly stressed the exceptions in multiple sanctions packages for Russian agricultural goods and products.

The Kremlin also claimed that a UN-brokered deal to allow grain exports to leave Ukrainian ports after a Russian naval blockade did not reach the country’s most in need a charge refuted by the EU.