Sloga: Russian disinformation remains a challenge in Latvia, there are politicians who embrace Putin’s narratives

Latvia is expanding military bases and additional NATO troops are being deployed in the country, says journalist Gunta Sloga in an interview with The Geopost. But for this, she emphasizes, governments are being obliged to do some pre-bunking as a step to prevent misinterpretation of military activity by Russia.

Sloga, who is known for fighting Russian disinformation, says in an interview with The Geopost that the disinformation in the Baltic countries has intensified as a result of social media. Meanwhile, she criticizes some politicians in Latvia, saying that they are embracing narratives similar to those of Vladimir Putin, especially in relation to traditional values ​​and immigration.

Full interview:

Sloga: We sometimes used to say that actually we have been fighting Russian disinformation since we regained our independence in 1991. But of course, the situation completely changed some ten years ago with social media invention, if you could say so, because Russian disinformation, although we understand very well, we see those narratives, we can research, we can do fact checks, it’s still like as in fairy tales, it’s a dragoon. If you cut one or two heads, three others will grow instead. And I would say that’s why it’s been very tough. I think, Russian propaganda, although big parts of our societies in the Baltic countries are resilient, they cannot be influenced by some Russian narratives, but still there are parts who are prone to believe Russian disinformation. For example, now during the war time, of course, Russia intentionally tries to portray Ukraine as corrupted state, that Europe shouldn’t help them, that Europe shouldn’t provide money. And these are, from one side you can say this is some soft kind of disinformation, but it’s really infecting people’s minds because you can start seeing In Latvia, during the first year of the war, lots of people were donating money to Ukraine to buy arms, to buy some human resources and so on. But now this help is decreasing. From one side you could say it’s some kind of fatigue, but from another side, of course, you can see this propaganda working, that we shouldn’t spend money for Ukraine if we need money for ourselves. And another huge narrative Russia is also trying to sow in is this failed state narrative, although we are part of EU, we are part of NATO, we have had such a huge development during those last 30 years, you can see that sometimes even local media pick up those stories that everything is bad, economy is not as good as in Germany or wherever else. And from one side you cannot always say that this is directly linked to Russia. But still, you can see those ways they interact.

For example, on other issues like immigration and LGBT when some politicians in Latvia start talking precisely the same quotes about family values and traditional families which should be preserved and you listen to Mr. Putin, you see it’s like one to one

The Geopost: How do you see these elections in Europe?

Sloga: EU is having different kinds of initiatives. For example, our center, we are also part of this very big EU network called EDMO who is doing fact-checking, who is doing researches and I would say that it differs from country to country. We saw the example of Slovakia already more than a year ago where actually this artificial intelligence doctored video helped to influence the result of elections, but then again it differs from country to country. Also, the way governments are reacting to some kind of disinformation or for example already doing some pre-bunking. Like an example in Latvia we are now expanding our military bases, extra NATO troops are being deployed in Latvia. And based on previous experience, we know that these are the stories Russia can exploit easily and that’s why, of course, our government and other military institutions are preparing to show those stories that these are very well-disciplined soldiers who are not doing any kind of crimes or whatever, those bases which are expanded, if some land is taken from some individuals, they have been paid, compensated, it’s, you know, like this agreement with local city councils and so on. So, really doing this some kind of pre-bunking and excluding possibility for Russia to use it as bad stories about NATO soldiers it’s just one example which comes to my mind but of course yes there are some others.

/The Geopost