European Parliament condemns Russia’s use of disinformation to justify its war in Ukraine

In a resolution adopted on January 23, members of the European Parliament condemned the Russian regime’s systematic falsification of historical arguments to justify its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine. The resolution was adopted by 480 votes in favour, 58 against with 48 abstentions, as reported on the European Parliament website.

The text adopted by Parliament rejects historical claims by the Russian regime to undermine Ukraine’s history and national identity as futile attempts to justify its ongoing illegal war. It also condemns Russia’s failure to establish accountability for Soviet crimes, and for cracking down on attempts to carry out historical research and holding public debates on these issues, saying that such practices have contributed to the Moscow regime’s ability to revive imperialist policies and instrumentalise history for its criminal purposes.

Parliament issues a strong call for the EU and its member states to increase and better coordinate their efforts to promptly and rigorously counter Russian disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference. This is essential, they say, to protect the integrity of democratic processes and strengthen the resilience of European societies. MEPs point to the need to actively promote media literacy and support quality media and professional journalism as well as research intro new hybrid influence technologies.

The resolution also calls on the EU to expand its sanctions against Russian media outlets conducting disinformation campaigns championing Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. It urges EU countries to thoroughly implement these sanctions and to dedicate sufficient resources to effectively addressing this hybrid warfare. MEPs also want the EU to step up its support for exiled independent Russian media to facilitate diverse voices in the Russian-language media.

Parliament is deeply concerned about the recent announcements by social media companies about a relaxation of their rules on fact-checking and moderation, as this will further enable Russia’s disinformation campaign to spread around the world. MEPs want the European Commission and EU member states to strictly enforce the Digital Services Act in response to these announcements by Meta and X, including as an important part of the fight against Russian disinformation.