Moscow is losing the information war in the Balkans to Washington by a landslide – experts
The US State Department has allocated about $700 thousand for two programs to train Balkan media employees to counter “Russian disinformation.”
Russian journalist Andrei Medvedev reported this on his Telegram channel, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“The emphasis, of course, is on the Serbian media. And for young journalists. And 700 thousand dollars is just for the current year. There will be a new grant next year. In this sense, we are hopelessly behind. We do not issue grants. Come on, we don’t even have meaningful training programs, seminars, lectures, or discussion platforms for those who are potentially ready to support us abroad,” Medvedev wrote.
The humanitarian component of Russian-Serbian cooperation in the applied sense leaves much to be desired, Balkan political scientist Oleg Bondarenko told PolitNavigator.
“This, at best, is holding various conferences, meetings, visits, and some cultural events. Unfortunately, Russia does not work like the United States. In this sense, this is a big omission that must be corrected. Because, especially in Serbia, with a little blood you could get a pretty good result. Especially if you consider that so far the Serbian people are absolutely pro-Russian – on almost all issues,” Bondarenko noted.
He believes that Russian foundations should provide grants to compatriots in Serbia, including journalists.
“As far as I know, presidential grants are awarded only to Russian organizations. If the Presidential Grants Fund is concerned about promoting Russia abroad, then it will be possible to find some kind of contractor who will work with other countries.
There are a large number of foundations - from the Russian World to the Gorchakov Foundation. Well, Rossotrudnichestvo, which is called upon to carry out such work. In fact, it does other things. It’s difficult to say exactly which ones, but Rossotrudnichestvo does not interact in the necessary way when working with opinion leaders and decision makers. This is very bad,” Bondarenko stated.
Moscow is losing the Balkan information war to Washington by a landslide, experts say.