What You Need To Know:
✓ Russian propaganda is playing a big role in trying to destabilize the European Union;
✓ “If you watch Russian television in Germany you really get the impression that Germany is nearly a failed state and that Europe is sinking down under this massive aggression of the refugees;”
✓ “Germany plays a key role in the sanctions and Germany plays a key role generally in the politics towards Russia. And I think Putin is tired of Merkel and he would love to get rid of her.”
✓ While Kremlin propaganda can be seen as responsible for instilling messages of fear into Germany’s Russian-speaking population, Reitschuster thinks that Germany is responsible for many of its problems when it comes to reporting on refugees.
According to journalist Boris Reitschuster, Russian propaganda is playing a big role in trying to destabilize the European Union, especially when targeting an estimated 3-4 million Russian-speakers in Germany about the refugee crisis. “If you watch Russian television in Germany you really get the impression that Germany is nearly a failed state and that Europe is sinking down under this massive aggression of the refugees and there will be soon Islamization of Europe and they even call it ‘the End of Europe and some apocalyptic images are shown.”
Reitschuster, who was based in Russia for over two decades since 1989, goes on to say that given Germany’s strong role in politics towards Russia, he believes that Putin is trying to weaken his opponents, split up the European Union, so that Russia can deal with each country individually: “I think, Germany plays a key role, because Germany with it’s 80 million population and with very strong chancellor from Eastern Germany, who knows how KGB is working, who knows Eastern Europe, Germany plays a key role in the sanctions and Germany plays a key role generally in the politics towards Russia. And I think Putin is tired of Merkel and he would love to get rid of her.”
While Kremlin propaganda can be seen as responsible for instilling messages of fear into Germany’s Russian-speaking population, Reitschuster thinks that Germany is responsible for many of its problems when it comes to reporting on refugees. In Cologne, for example, German police lied in their police report, saying everything was quiet a day after the attack, something many German media outlets failed to pick up on. “And if you wouldn’t have hidden these lies then Russian propaganda would not be so effective now…Many people lost their confidence in the police so I think it’s not only a Putin’s crisis but also a crisis of our democracy.”
Hromadske’s Nataliya Gumenyuk spoke to Boris Reitschuster, journalist and former Moscow Bureau Chief of “Focus” in March of 2016 in Kyiv.
