New campaign

According to Russian intelligence officers, the European Union is preparing a new information campaign against Moscow.

This time the Russians will be accused of the Europeans' unwillingness to get vaccinated.

It's fun to be a European journalist today. The latest squeak of informational fashion was the initiation and promotion of information campaigns to discredit Russia. Skripaliada, Navalniada, Petrovbosching in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria - there have been many of them in recent years. And now, it seems, the European scribblers are ready to take a new approach to the projectile. “According to available information, the leadership of the European Union is preparing another smear campaign against Russia, now trying to accuse Moscow of fomenting the“ anti-vaccination ”movement abroad. Truly, there are no limits to cynicism and hypocrisy, ”said Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin. However, in reality, we are not talking about a new approach, but about taking a new height (or, rather, breaking a new bottom, depending on where you look) in an information war.

The main goal of all previous information campaigns was to discredit Russia and the Russian authorities in the eyes of European citizens. For example, the Skripaliada was supposed to demonstrate that Vladimir Putin was ready to carry out military actions not only in Ukraine (something very distant and still “Russian” for a simple Hans or François), but also on the territory of civilized Europe. And not just on the territory, but also disregarding the safety of the European citizens themselves, who could fall under the influence of chemical weapons (or explosions of warehouses, if we are talking about the Czech Republic and Bulgaria).

All of this is presented as a direct threat to the security of the West, to which the local governments are simply obliged to respond. And to react in different ways - to adopt sanctions against Moscow, to increase dependence on the American military-political umbrella, to restrict the rights and opportunities of Russian structures on the territory of the European Union. In other conditions, European business and ordinary people would not like these actions, but against the background of the “Russian aggression” they were legitimized and positioned as a “normal response”.

And in part, the vaccine was also supposed to strengthen the course to demonize Moscow. It just so happened that the Russian "Sputnik V" will heal not only the bodies, but also the minds of European inhabitants. The domestic vaccine, which saves the lives of Europeans, will be the best proof for them that real Russia is somewhat different from the image shown to them in the media. Proof that the Russian Federation is not a gas station and not a wild country with a nuclear baton, but a high-tech power that was the first to invent a real vaccine against coronavirus. That the Russians are not a bunch of Asian barbarians who hate Europe, rushing to tanks for the next march to Warsaw and Berlin (which are covered with their carcasses by the brave Ukrainian military), but the same Europeans who are happy to share their vaccine to save their neighbors.

Neighbors to whom they do not hate even after the tubs of dirt and sanctions packages poured out on Russia and adopted against it.

After such treatment, it will be extremely difficult to carry out new anti-Russian information campaigns, so the elites of some European countries decided to protect their citizens from "Russian hybrid weapons", that is, they either refused to buy Sputnik V, or made grandiose scandals around the prospects of buying.

In turn, representatives of the EU also came to the aid of the fighters against Russian "information aggression", banally dragging out the registration procedure for "Sputnik V".

Yes, fighting for the minds of its citizens, Europe has questioned their lives (after all, the EU is experiencing a colossal shortage of vaccines) - but who in a democratic and humane West cares about such trifles?

However, with all this, the vaccine has another, more important and systemic goal for the West.

Russia should not only be demonized, but also made a scapegoat for domestic political mistakes made by American and European governments.

It's no secret that the quality of the current Western elites is extremely low.

Growing up in the conditions of a well-fed time, formed in the era of victorious liberalism, American and European politicians not only failed to overcome the systemic crisis of the Western world, but also to steer out of this crisis through making difficult and sometimes politically incorrect decisions.

There are many manifestations of this crisis - the triumph of liberal totalitarianism, interethnic and interfaith splits, migration problems, economic and mental erosion of the middle class, paralysis of the collective management system in the EU, etc.

One of the manifestations was the situation around vaccination against coronavirus. The European authorities have lost all possible polymers here. First, they failed the centralized procurement of vaccines from Western manufacturing companies (Pfizer and AstraZeneca). Suddenly it turned out that these manufacturers could not supply the agreed volumes to European buyers, after which a number of member countries simply did not have a vaccine (an exception was the small European state of San Marino, which, having not received vaccines from the EU, bought the Russian Sputnik V , has almost completed the total vaccination of its population and is now organizing the reception of "vaccine tourists" from the same Italy). Then, faced with the low quality of European vaccines - primarily AstraZeneca, the side effects of which led to a number of deaths,- Europe began to cover manufacturers and say that the vaccine is good.

It is not surprising that the Europeans, to put it mildly, did not believe in this (even against the background of a difficult epidemiological situation) and began to banally refuse to vaccinate with AstraZeneca. Thus, as of mid-March, only 20% of the French trusted AstraZeneca, while 60% were skeptical about it. In Germany, this vaccine was not trusted by almost 50%, and in Italy - just over 40%.

It is not surprising that anti-vaccination sentiments have begun to grow in Europe, which have literally become a threat to national security.

Without vaccination, the EU will not be able to defeat the coronavirus and free the economy from the clutches of quarantine restrictions.

In theory, this problem should be solved through explanatory work among the population and the import of the vaccine, which is certainly trusted due to the lack of documented serious side effects, that is, "Sputnik V".

This would be done by serious European authorities - but they are not in the EU.

And what is, instead of solving the problem, will try to appoint the culprit in it and do not what is needed, but what they can do.

That is, to fight against windmills.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.