The anti-Russian mass media campaign in the Western mass media was launched to foment fears of a ‘Russian threat’ ahead of the European Union’s summit in Brussels on August 30 and NATO summit in Wales on September 4-5, Russia’s EU envoy Vladimir Chizhov said on Friday.
“A number of periodicals have been quoting Ukraine’s claims about a Russian military invasion of Ukraine and demanding the West take resolute action,” the diplomat said.
The senior Russian diplomat sees three explanations for the timing of this campaign. Firstly, the Ukrainian authorities’ abortive attempts to eliminate the crisis in the east of the country by means of a punitive operation. Secondly, this reflects the anger of “certain personalities in Kiev and in some third countries” over the successes achieved at the Minsk talks on August 26, as well as the high level contacts between the Customs Union and the European Union. Lastly, the media campaign was timed for the EU summit in Brussels on August 30 and NATO summit in Wales on September 4-5 with the aim to foment fears in the European and North American countries of a mythical Russian threat.”
Chizhov expressed the hope “the European leaders and public opinion are capable of taking an impartial look at the situation and deriving sound conclusions from it to see that a political settlement of the crisis in Ukraine has no alternatives.