
Russia tries to falsify history and manipulate facts using the Russian-speaking population in Estonia, says Estonian professor Vladimir Sazonov in an interview with The Geopost, where he calls for unity in Europe in the fight against Russian disinformation and propaganda.
He emphasizes that Russia invests billions of euros in extending its influence, being very active in cyber-attacks.
“Unfortunately, we also have Russian spies, and we also have a number of influential Russian agents perhaps in politics and in the business environment who are trying to extend Russian influence… And it is very important that all of us in Europe invest, to be united”, he says among other things.
Speaking about Russian disinformation and the war in Ukraine, Sazonov says that Russia is using the same methods it has used against Estonia for the past 20 years, while adding that in order to deal with this, an increase in media education and critical thinking is needed.
Full interview:
The Geopost: You are coming here in Pristina from Estonia, we talked today about Russian influence in Baltic States, how is the situation after two years of Russian aggression in Ukraine?
Sazonov: We still face a Russian influence activity, we have Russian active measures we have Russian information pressure Russian information campaigns against Estonia, we have how Russia trying to falsify history or abuse history, manipulate history facts because we have this common impression Imperial legacy and the Soviet legacy which is also Imperial and Estonia was under Soviet occupation since 1940 and then since 1944, 1991, and we have Russian cyber-attacks which is very active and unfortunately we have also Russian spies and also we have a number of Russian agents of influence in probably in politics and in business environment and also useful “idiots” with Russia or Russian intelligence services or people affiliated to them try to find via social media.
Of course Estonia has also done previously quite a lot in the fighting against Russian disinformation. We have faced with Russian ideological influence, information influence, information warfare already in 19th century when Estonia was since 1710 under occupation, then we have a 19th century, this Russification, they try to open Russian schools and promote Russian language and Estonian language they try to undermine it and then Estonia became independent in 1918 we had independence war in Soviet Russia there was many actions and of course when Estonia became independent again in 1991.
Russia already in 1991 started with this slowly, they tried to target both audiences the first target audiences in Estonia, which Russia tried to target was Russophone population. The population of Estonia is 1,300,000 people. Approximately 26-27% is Russophone people. We can speak about Russophone people because some of them came to Estonia during the Russian Imperial period, during the Russian Tsar in 17th century, like all believers, some of them came as white Russians, also, but most of them were sent to Estonia as deported people or people for the work, not educated people, they were some educated people which didn’t have some roots, Russia did this assimilation politics.
And among them, the biggest group were Russians, but there were are also some Ukrainians, Sovietized, there are some Byelorussian’s, other people, and some other people from the Soviet Union whose language, lingua Franka or home language is Russian.
In 2014 when Russia attacked Ukraine first time, annexed Crimea and created these terrorist puppet republics in Donetsk and Lugansk, pro-Russian terrorist republics, then Estonian government decided to open Estonian TV in Russian language to broadcast normal information for people what is going on and explain that the Russian TV channels, media, newspapers are promoting fake news like in 2007 when Estonia was attacked by Russia, you know that during the April 2007 Estonia was attacked by Russia. Russia created and promoted this Russian-speaking unrest in Tallinn because the people were like against that Estonian government will take this Soviet monument which is symbol of occupation for Estonian built by Stalinists from the Tallinn but it was not demolished, not destroyed it was put on the military cemetery, but Russian propaganda said it will be destroyed, so, they sent from Russia several pro-Russian activists they conducted cyber-attacks, information operations, the Russian embassy probably was involved in these things in Estonia and they tried to do the same and now if you speak about Russian disinformation, Russia is using the same, mostly the same topics as it has used against Estonia for last 20 years. Some topics are probably older even from the first Estonian Republic from the 20s and 30s so from the 20th century that Estonian people are fascist, Estonian are Russo phobic, Estonian government, Estonian people hate Russian, they forbid Russian language. We still have after 30 years Russian schools.
And when the Russians started this war, 2022, there were quite a big number of Russian propaganda narratives against Ukrainian refugees. And several pro-Russian trolls brainwashed people via social media promoted these things that Ukrainian refugees are not nice, they come to Estonia, they are prostitutes, they have HIV, have big number of criminals, or Estonian government support only Ukrainian refugees, give like 900 or 1000 euros and cheapest flats for free, and their own Russian people who live in Estonia, are not supported by government, this kind of lies, this kind of manipulation of facts or truth, half-truth, half-truth and lies, Russian forces are promoting.
Also, why you support the Ukraine, because Ukraine will lose the war, Ukraine is losing the war, you don’t need to support.
The money, you’ll need for your own military defense or better to invest your health care, social system, education, because Estonian aid is so small, yeah okay maybe giving like a million, for Estonia, it’s a big number, but it’s nothing for Ukraine or Ukraine will be corrupted, they definitely will steal this money and this kind of things. Also, they try to create a tension between Estonian people and some Estonian people became more frustrated about their government and also between Estonians and Russians who live in Estonia, and these things Russia is doing permanently, they are using the spies, they are using the fake news.
And of course, one of the tools of influence of Russia is social media, especially the youngsters, TikTok, Telegram, which is quite popular among the Russo-phone people. We did a lot, but of course the Russian budget of disinformation propaganda is high. We can speak about the billions, we don’t know exactly, about one half billion and some speak about six billion, but it is unofficial sources and we don’t know how much. And it is very important that we all in Europe invest, be united. We will share our experience, we will monitor that, but not only monitor, we will counter these things, and we will also try to protect our people by increasing firstly media literacy, critical thinking, education, and also to be not so emotional.
/The Geopost