Enlarge image
Annalena Baerbock, Stéphane Séjourné and Radosław Sikorski: “Our unity is our strength”
Photo: Sarah Meyssonnier / AP
Three large European countries have fallen victim to the same Russian destabilization strategy - and now want to defend themselves together: Germany, France and Poland are united in defending themselves against Russian disinformation and cyber attacks.
A joint warning mechanism has been agreed between the three countries against Russian troll attacks, said French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné on Monday in La Celle-Saint-Cloud near Paris after a meeting with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and his Polish colleague Radosław Sikorski. In particular, the European elections and the Olympic Games in Paris are possible targets of such attacks.
Since the summer of 2023, the French have been monitoring targeted Russian operations in several European countries, primarily France, Germany and Poland. False accounts are used to try to influence public opinion and weaken the willingness to massively support Ukraine. Fake websites such as Pravda.fr.com are used. The French have no doubts about the Russian authorship of this campaign. According to a report, over 193 websites are said to be affected.
The French government assumes that this is just the beginning of a large-scale campaign in the 2024 election year and expects a massive increase in Russian activities to disinformation and influence the population in numerous countries, particularly in the run-up to the European elections (June 6-9). European states. People around the Ministry of Defense said that we are only at the beginning of a big wave of fake news.
Baerbock said that offsetting aid to Ukraine from individual EU countries also meets Russia's interest in dividing Europe. “The question of who makes more in which month is also part of Russian propaganda to play Europeans off against each other,” said Baerbock. "We won't go along with this." Support for Ukraine will not be continued in competition, but rather together. “Our unity is our strength,” she emphasized.
The meeting also focused on strengthening the defense and security architecture in Europe, also in view of a possible election victory for Donald Trump in the USA. Not only do 27 different national systems in the EU need to be better interlinked, said Baerbock. In the future, joint procurement and joint projects in defense must be initiated and operational capabilities must be pooled more closely than before, she added against the background of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
European defense as a “second life insurance”
“The billions that we are investing in Ukraine are also billions that we are investing in our own security,” said Baerbock. Her French counterpart described European defense as a “second life insurance policy” that does not replace NATO, but complements it.
“If Putin believes that our strength is dwindling and our support is waning, he is completely mistaken,” said Baerbock. The Europeans have been standing by Ukraine for two years and will continue to do so for as long as necessary. The question of how support for Ukraine can become even more effective also depends on how closely France, Poland and Germany act together militarily in the next few months and, if necessary, in the next few years.
bas/mfh/eru/AFP/dpa