Russia is trying to achieve information dominance by influencing social processes, discussions and information systems. This follows from the conclusions of the investigative report of the Polish government committee, which investigated Russia’s influence on Poland’s internal security. Warsaw according to the committee cannot defend against these activities of Moscow, TASR informs according to the report of the PAP agency.
He prepared the report they published on Friday committee’s disinformation team. The authors mainly examined the period after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland in 2020, since, according to them, there was an intensification of disinformation activities during this period.
In the conclusions, it is stated that Russia in its effort to gain information superiority in international relations uses various methods including diplomacy, propaganda and disinformation. In addition, it also performs psychological campaigns, infiltrates computer networks and databases and exploits hacker group attackssuch as Ghostwriter, which is also known as UNC1151.
The aim of this effort by Moscow is, according to the report of the Polish committee destabilize the political situation in the countries of Central Europe. According to some estimates Russia spends up to four billion dollars a year on disinformation and propaganda, the authors stated. One of the key findings is that Warsaw’s measures to counter these kinds of threats from both Russia and Belarus have in recent years “insufficient, temporary, inconsistent and often only superficial”.
Among other things, the committee points to lack of a long-term, coordinated and systematic approach – either by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or by a representative appointed by the government, who limited himself to general recommendations only.
“The most significant act that actively undermined the defense of Poland and NATO in the cognitive war was the dismantling – even through physical intervention – the NATO counterintelligence expert center that was being built in Warsaw,” the committee noted. According to the PAP, this center was supposed to face Russia’s information war. The report further recommends public authorities to cooperated with the media, especially during crises, in an effort to prevent the emergence of an information vacuum, or situation, when important information is missing, which may raise doubts among the population.
The authorities should also allow the media access to direct witness of the events and uncensored visual material. The committee proposed that government bodies could also publish disinformation reports. “Most of all it is necessary strategy to combat disinformationwhich would include contributions professional, journalistic and non-governmental community. This requires an increase in public resources dedicated to this goal,” the authors emphasized.
