The European Parliament called for countering Russian propaganda justifying the wars in Chechnya and Ukraine
The day before, the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning Russian historical falsifications and disinformation to justify military aggression against Ukraine. The document calls on the European Union to actively counter the propaganda of the "Russian world", strengthen sanctions against Russian media that spread it, develop media literacy and support quality journalism, including publications operating in exile. The resolution was supported by 480 deputies, 58 voted against, 48 abstained, according to the website of the European Parliament.
Calling for the protection of the media space, the authors of the document drew special attention to the weakening of moderation rules on the social networks Meta and X. This, according to the resolution, creates a threat of the spread of Kremlin propaganda. The European Parliament demands that the European Commission and EU member states strictly adhere to the provisions of the Digital Services Act.
In the document, MEPs expose the Russian regime's attempts to distort historical facts in order to undermine Ukraine's national identity and condemn impunity for the war crimes of the Soviet regime. According to the resolution, the practice of suppressing any initiatives to conduct historical research and public debate on these issues allows the Kremlin to "revive imperialist policies and use history for its criminal purposes."
In particular, the document notes that the launch of a "special military operation" against Ukraine in the Russian media space was justified by the need to protect civilians. At the same time, MEPs consider Russia's war against Ukraine "not as an isolated act, but as a continuation of Moscow's imperialist policy, including the war against Chechnya, military aggression against Georgia in 2008, the occupation of Crimea and the outbreak of war in Donbas in 2014."
It should be noted that the two Russian-Chechen wars, one of which the Russian authorities presented as "disarmament of illegal armed groups" and "establishment of constitutional order", and the second as an "anti-terrorist operation", were regarded in the world as an "internal matter" of Russia. As a result, Chechnya did not receive any support from outside and was left alone with one of the largest armies in the world.
In the republic itself and in some human rights circles, they believe that the world community's ignoring of Russia's two wars in Chechnya, during which mass murders and war crimes against civilians were committed, made it possible for the Russian Federation to unleash subsequent armed conflicts with grave consequences for their victims.
