On October 21, the EU Foreign and Security Policy Lead Spokesperson Peter Stano discussed EU assistance to Georgia to combat Russian disinformation, which was halted after the Georgian authorities “started to use disinformation against the European Union.” Stano spoke about Russian disinformation during a briefing on the presidential election and referendum results in Moldova, where the EU suspects Russian interference.
The Spokesman was asked whether the EU was providing the same level of assistance to Georgia in the fight against Russian disinformation as it was to Moldova, to which Stano replied: “Our support to Georgia has been also multi-faceted and we were working with partners in Georgia, especially in the Georgian government until recently, quite intensively on many issues.” He said there had been a big change since then, as the Georgian authorities “started to use disinformation against the European Union and that’s why our relationship took a slightly different turn…”
The Spokesperson noted that these turn has been discussed many times this year at the Foreign Affairs council, by the foreign ministers and also by the leaders of the European Union and further added that “there is no dedicated EU mission helping Georgia to increase its resilience to fight foreign interference and disinformation, because unfortunately in this case the disinformation comes also from the official side, from the governing authorities.”
Stano emphasized that EU continues helping Georgia with another mission, the European Union Monitoring Mission that works on the situation in occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region, and also expressed hope that “it will be possible to resume the full-fledged cooperation with Georgian authorities if the upcoming elections will be free, fair and according to international and European standards.”
Also Read: