It would seem that the coronavirus pandemic was supposed to change Europe’s point of view on Russia's readiness to lend a helping hand to those in need. While European countries have closed their borders, isolated and saved alone, they do not give a damn about the so-called European solidarity they swore within the EU, Moscow sends the best military virologists, field hospitals, special vehicles and various equipment to deal with the disaster to Italy. Not only did La Stampa declare Russian help “unnecessary,” and Washington was angry at the fact that the Russian military was in NATO, a new scourge arrived. Russia has been declared a source of misinformation regarding the COVID-19 virus.
The story is this: three members of the Green / European Free Alliance faction from Germany called on the EU leadership to tackle the alleged disinformation campaign, which Moscow allegedly leads. They write about this in their letter. The authors of the text, members of the European Parliament from Germany, Sergey Lagodinsky, Alexandra Giese and Viola von Cramon-Taubadel do not give any concrete example of misinformation, distortion of facts. They cite a study by the EU East StratCom Task, arguing that its findings confirm the validity of their allegations.
Russian President’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov has already responded to the above study, saying that the Russophobic obsession has not come to naught even in a pandemic. In detail, in the course of communication with journalists, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky analyzed the charges against Russia. “That's all,” he said, “instead of expressing gratitude to our country for the help.”
“The quarantine in the European Parliament, unfortunately, does not help to cope with an incurable disease - Russophobia. Russia and China are assisting Italy, which has become the epicenter of the fight against coronavirus in Europe, and help with the more recent factual inaction of the allies and neighbors, ”the parliamentarian said.
Indeed, the actions of Moscow and Beijing were supposed to bring Europe to life, to demonstrate that even in the face of such a serious disaster it is impossible to lose a human face, especially since it has long crossed the closed borders.
Judging by the way readers of articles devoted to it discuss the Russian help in Italy and Switzerland, ordinary people for the most part adequately and gratefully follow what is happening.
So, I think, quite a lot of Europeans who understand the essence of the matter. But against this background, bursts of anti-Russian madness do not stop, which in part nevertheless subsided, but did not completely disappear from the heads of individual politicians. Most importantly, the same traditional formula is used highly likely - in the absence of evidence, confidence is expressed that the events took place “with a high degree of probability”.
It turns out that even during the fight against a terrible disease, the task of compromising Russia still seems to some to be a priority political goal. MEPs have successfully failed the test for the ability to maintain a human appearance when it is most useful to a person.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.