{"id":12037,"date":"2024-05-08T17:02:10","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T15:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zastone.ba\/?p=12037"},"modified":"2024-05-08T17:02:55","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T15:02:55","slug":"politicians-media-and-religious-institutions-accused-of-spreading-disinformation-favoring-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zastone.ba\/en\/politicians-media-and-religious-institutions-accused-of-spreading-disinformation-favoring-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Politicians, Media, and Religious Institutions Accused of Spreading Disinformation Favoring Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Sandra Cvetkovic (RFE\/RL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There were no representatives from Kosovo on the panel, but participants from the region mentioned that a part of Russian propaganda refers to Serbia\u2019s denial of Kosovo\u2019s independence, declared in 2008. Besides Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, other states in the region recognize Kosovo\u2019s independence.<\/p>\n

Boris Varga from Serbia, who is a journalist and publicist by profession, said that Russian propaganda was present in his country long before Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and added that almost every regime supported it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHybrid warfare is not only against Ukraine but also against the West. The Western Balkans region is an ideal zone to cause instability in the EU\u2019s neighborhood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said that Serbia has not imposed any sanctions against Russia and that Moscow\u2019s propaganda is spreading freely at all levels of society.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelgrade uses pro-Russian propaganda for its own needs while sitting on two chairs. This is how Serbia is expanding its influence in Republika Srpska [the Serb entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina] and Montenegro,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Serbia did not join the sanctions imposed by Western countries against Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 reiterated that he will try to maintain this stance. On the other hand, Serbia supported a United Nations resolution condemning Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, while Belgrade explained the non-imposition of sanctions against Moscow with traditional Serbian-Russian ties and economic interests.<\/p>\n

Millan Jovanovi\u0107 from Montenegro, an expert in transatlantic security focusing on disinformation and foreign influence, stated that Russia, despite sanctions, freely spreads its propaganda at various levels, mainly through political actors and the Serbian Orthodox Church.<\/p>\n

He also emphasized that pro-Russian media are available to the general public in the region\u2019s countries, as well as Kremlin-backed Russian media such as Russia Today and Sputnik.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have similar things in the region that are interconnected; there is a sentiment against Western countries, while the pro-Russian sentiment is protected. A higher level of citizen education is necessary to prevent the spread of disinformation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jovanovi\u0107 added that there is also a large media network through which the propaganda of the \u201cOrthodox brothers\u201d is spread, suggesting that Ukrainians are no different from Russians.<\/p>\n

Darko Brkan, a civil society activist from Bosnia and Herzegovina, highlighted similar issues. He stated that Russia exerts its greatest influence in Bosnia and Herzegovina through one of the entities, namely through Republika Srpska.<\/p>\n

He added that disinformation is mostly spread in coordination with the media from Serbia.<\/p>\n

Western countries and the European Union have made it clear to the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, several times that maintaining close ties with Russia and Belarus is not in line with the state\u2019s path toward European integration.<\/p>\n

Dodik, who is under sanctions from the United States and the European Union, has stated that Republika Srpska refuses to join sanctions against Russia despite, as he said, daily pressures.<\/p>\n

Rosana Aleksoska from North Macedonia, engaged in the fight against fake news, said during the that Russia has a significant influence, and it is extremely important to talk about it whenever possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt must be understood that individuals believe lies from Russia, which spreads propaganda\u2026 The less we understand what is happening in Ukraine, the greater the influence of disinformation,\u201d she assessed.<\/p>\n

Gerta Zaimi from Albania, involved in Balkan politics, emphasized that Russia conducts a different kind of propaganda in her country compared to the former Yugoslav states, thus trying to influence the cessation of contacts with Western countries.<\/p>\n

Earlier, at the Balkan summit on disinformation, there was a panel on disinformation in Europe, where a researcher from Estonia, Vladimir Sazonov, said that Russian propaganda targets European and Western policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia has a tradition of propaganda, influence on identity since the imperialist era, and it does not stop. It will not stop,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On February 21, the EU approved the thirteenth package of sanctions against Russia. With the expansion of restrictive measures, the list of sanctioned individuals supporting Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine now numbers over 2,000.<\/p>\n

The final decision will be published in the official EU gazette on the eve of the second anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia spreads its propaganda in the countries of the Western Balkans through politicians, religious institutions, and media. That was the conclusion of the \u201cDisinformation in Balkan\u201d summit, held on February 22 in Pristina as part of the Balkan Summit on Disinformation. The organizer of this panel is the Kosovar portal \u201cThe Geopost\u201d, which is engaged in the fight against disinformation and external influence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":12038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[75,76],"class_list":["post-12037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-seecheck","tag-summit"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zastone.ba\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zastone.ba\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zastone.ba\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zastone.ba\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zastone.ba\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12037"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/zastone.ba\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12041,"href":"https:\/\/zastone.ba\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12037\/revisions\/12041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zastone.ba\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zastone.ba\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zastone.ba\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zastone.ba\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}