NATO Co-Sponsors Westminster Expert Panel Discussion on Disinformation

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LONDON, May 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- NATO and Atticus Partners co-sponsored a panel discussion on Strategic Communications in the Fight Against Disinformation on Wednesday morning in the House of Commons.  

The panel included Bob Seely MP, Mariia Zolkina, Research Fellow for International Relations at the London School of Economics, Andy Pryce, Head of Counter Disinformation at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, and Dominic Nicholls, Associate Defence Editor for The Telegraph, chaired by Atticus Partners' Aliona Hlivco.  

The event was attended by politicians, diplomats and defence attachés, academics, media, NGOs, students and industry. The discussion focused on Russian hybrid warfare technical, including dis- and misinformation, especially applied in its war on Ukraine. 

"The old active measures KGB model of undermining Western society, demoralisation […] destabilisation, normalisation. The Russian military […] has effectively got a six-stage operation rather than a four-stage," said Bob Seely MP, Foreign Affairs Select Committee member and Chair of the Ukraine and Russia All-Party Parliamentary Groups. "That for me shows the influence of Putin, the presidential administration and the FSB, or the former KGB, on Russian military thinking. And so that's why modern concepts of Russian warfare is stuff that's almost been dictated to the Russian military in order to force them to think more creatively about the use of war." 

Mariia Zolkina, Ukrainian researcher and political analyst, spoke on the invasion of Crimea in 2014 stating, it "was unfortunately the biggest Russian political diplomatic success, or disinformation success, after 2014 because Russia persuades not only people in non-Western societies, but also unfortunately a significant share of political elites in the West." 

"We all are […] on the front line of the disinformation war," said Dominic Nicholls. "[Social media trolls will] discredit me as a journalist […] They'll discredit the paper. They'll discredit the Western press. They'll aim to discredit the message and it's like fighting smoke." 

Andy Pryce spoke on the use of disinformation by Russia stating: "There's been a range of [...] different narratives, they're aimed at one thing and that's accelerating compassion fatigue for Ukraine. Compassion fatigue is a real thing, we see it with lots of conflicts around the world, lots of disasters around the world and there has been serious academic studies that demonstrate that this really has impact on people, and so the meta goal for the Russians is to accelerate this." 

SOURCE Atticus Partners