Under the fire of propaganda

Neither the West nor the East. In some ways, the majority of residents of the three countries of Central Europe who answered the questions of sociologists about the geopolitical orientation of their states feel.

In the Czech Republic and Hungary, who chose the version "between the West and the East" - 48%, in Slovakia - 52%. Part of the West feel from a quarter (in Slovakia) to a third (in Hungary) of respondents. Supporters of the conditional "East" turned out to be, however, disappearingly few. A survey conducted by the Bratislava research center Globsec in collaboration with Czech and Hungarian sociological services and published under the name "Central Europe under the fire of propaganda" also brought many other interesting and unexpected results. Their overall result: many residents of the region became skeptics and pessimists in relation to the European Union and NATO, and Russian propaganda, which is more and more actively operating in these countries, finds many grateful listeners, readers and spectators. The level of trust in the "alternative" media, a significant part of which, according to media experts , is part of the Russian propaganda apparatus, reached 24% in the Czech Republic, 17% in Slovakia and 16% in Hungary.

A little more data made in sociologists. NATO support in three countries ranges from 30 (Slovakia) to 47 (Hungary) percent, the EU - from 32 (Czech Republic) to 54 percent (Hungary). Active opponents of both organizations, however, are even less: in the case of NATO - no more than 20% (Slovakia), with the EU - 24% (Czech Republic). The fact that their country should help allies in the North Atlantic Alliance, if they are attacked, are convinced by 68% of the Czechs and Hungarians and 54% of Slovaks. At the same time, however, in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the number of opponents of the possible placement of bases and other NATO objects on their territory exceeds the number of supporters. In Hungary, the ratio, although the opposite, is still a lot of opponents of the NATO presence - 34%.

This reflects the desire to avoid undesirable responsibility

In Hungary alone, the role of the United States in world politics is positively assessed by the majority of respondents - 46% (negatively - 39%). Czechs and especially Slovaks do not like the American policy: the first has 51:35 ratio, the latter has 59:32 in favor of those who consider the role of the United States negative. Moreover, 48% of those surveyed in Slovakia and 38% - in Hungary and the Czech Republic blame the United States in the Ukrainian crisis. Finally, the unprecedentedly high was the share of those who believe that the neutral status is better than NATO membership, would ensure the security of their country: in Slovakia there were 47%, in the Czech Republic - 39 and in Hungary - 30 percent.

The results of the survey, already called some commentators in three countries "shocking", is commented by the analyst of the Globsec research center Daniel Milo commented by Radio.

-How did it happen that if you rely on your survey data, most of the citizens of the three countries of Central Europe, after almost 20 years of NATO membership and 12 years of stay in the European Union, still consider their countries "something between the West and the East"? What are the reasons?

- Probably, one of the main reasons is the rejection of part of the society of the basic principles on which Euro -Atlantic integration is held. The entry into NATO and the EU then, at the turn of the millennium, was the result of certain positive hopes and views widespread in society. Today we are observing disappointment due to both real social problems and with the fact that the expectations caused by integration into the Western structures were initially high. The result is erosion of trust in the democratic values and the decline of those political elites that defended the course on Euro -Atlantic integration.

- I was interested in data on the relative popularity of the idea of neutrality. What is this talking about? Residents of Central Europe do not realize or do not perceive threats to the security of the region - including from Russia in connection with the Ukrainian crisis?

- You cannot unequivocally interpret these results. In the media, conclusions have already appeared that citizens, in particular, Slovakia prefer neutrality. This is not entirely true, because the obvious majority of respondents - in the Czech Republic it is 68%, in Hungary more than 70, in Slovakia 54% said that their countries in NATO are important to ensure its security. Therefore, the simultaneous positive answer to the question about neutrality looks strange. I think that here is a subconscious desire to avoid undesirable responsibility, fulfillment of obligations that NATO membership implies. This is an increase in the expenses of individual countries for defense, and, if necessary, participation in the collective protection of other participants in the alliance.

-That is, the position of "My hut from the edge": people agree that their countries are under the NATO "Safety Umbrella", but they themselves do not want to keep it over someone yet?

-Yes, some of the respondents thereby, as it were, say: we understand that the security threats, including the region of Central Europe, exist, yes, we would like to be sure that our security is guaranteed by the NATO military-political union, but we somehow do not really want to actively participate in its strengthening. This, in my opinion, is a very dangerous type of thinking.

Events in Ukraine almost disappeared from the field of view of the public in Central Europe

- If you return to the question of Russia and its current politics: according to your data, do citizens of the three countries perceive the study of Moscow, the actions of Moscow in Ukraine and the general Russian foreign policy of recent years as a potential threat to their countries?

- The respondents were asked the question of what they consider the greatest threat to the security of their state. The first two places were taken by refugees and Islamic terrorism. Russia was in 3-4th place. At the same time, I note that even attempts at a serious terrorist attack in any of our countries over all these years, fortunately, was not. As well as there was no massive influx of refugees - with the exception of Hungary, where this situation lasted only a couple of months in the summer of 2015 and came to naught. Nevertheless, what is happening to the east of our borders - Russia's aggression in Ukraine, the annexation of Crimea - most citizens perceive as a lower danger compared to what is happening in Western Europe, where we have recently seen large terrorist attacks, where a tense situation with migrants has been preserved. I will assume that the coverage of all these problems in the media plays its role here. The events in Ukraine almost disappeared from the field of view of the public in Central Europe, while the tragedies in France and Belgium spoke and wrote a lot.

-Can such an disappearance of the "eastern" theme be somehow connected with the propaganda efforts of the Kremlin in your region?

-To some extent yes. Although, on the whole, the reasons why, for example, in Slovakia, a pro -Russian orientation is most pronounced, can be called several. It would be too much simplification to blame everything on propaganda. Of course, it acts here, we, like colleagues in neighboring countries, note the growth of the activity of pro -Russian projects on the Internet, we can talk about their coordinated activities. Apparently, we are talking about an attempt to purposefully influence public opinion in a direction corresponding to the interests of Russia. But, I repeat, there are more reasons. This is energy dependence on Russia, in the case of Slovakia - almost complete. These are the memories and ideas related, for example, with the liberation of our region by the Soviet Army at the end of World War II. These long -standing sympathies are automatically transferred to today's Russia. And finally, the same narratives that Russian and pro -Russian propaganda spread: ideas about the weak and vicious West, meaningless NATO, not functioning the EU, etc. These ideas are later repeated by representatives of local extreme, extremist political forces, but gradually they begin to penetrate the mainstream.

In our region, distrust of the hegemone of world politics is quite common

- Another obvious trend: the growth of anti -Americanism. At the beginning of the previous decade of Central Europe, the country of Central Europe was considered as the most loyal allies of the United States - in contrast to the "old" Europe, primarily France and Germany. Now, judging by your data, everything has changed: a significant share of the respondents blames Washington in various international problems, from the Middle East to Ukraine. How to explain this?

- I think that in our region, distrust of the hegemone of world politics, which the United States, is undoubtedly, is quite common. As a result, if the US interests in some international conflict intersect with the interests of other noticeable players, for example Russia, part of the public instinctively tends to support the "weaker". And he still plays a role, according to our observations, the heritage of George Bush Jr., the second war in Iraq , when a negative attitude towards the unilateral force of the United States spread in society and among political elites. I can’t help but note that these feelings and reactions, sometimes clearly not conscious, not articulated, deftly use that information campaign of pro -Russian propaganda, which is very often based on criticizing any US foreign policy steps as obviously “aggressive”.

-Is it possible to somehow turn the negative trends in public opinion negative for supporters of pro-Western orientation-and what, in your opinion, do you need to do for this?

In this region there is Russian propaganda, which carries certain threats

- As part of this sociological study, we prepared some recommendations together with Czech and Hungarian colleagues. I can state them in a compressed form. Firstly, you need to call a spade a spade: it is openly stated that in this region there is Russian propaganda, which carries certain threats. In this regard, there are some shifts-for example, noticeable attention, which is paid to this problem in the annual reports of the Czech counterintelligence BIS and Slovak SIS. It would be nice if high -ranking political representatives spoke out on this subject. Secondly, it is necessary to clearly orient the power structures to fight with "hybrid" threats : propaganda is only one of them. Thirdly, it is important to develop your own strategy in the context of the current information war. While in our region we see a response in the best case: something happened, some distorted information spread-the authorities and the media begin to explain how things really are. We ourselves do not create information reasons. But it is necessary to explain to the public what values we support, why the countries of the region are in NATO and the EU, what benefits they receive from this ... The support of high -quality journalism that informs, in particular, about foreign policy is associated with this. Well, the latter is not to forget about the education system. Medial literacy should be included in training courses. It is necessary to develop critical thinking among schoolchildren and students, because it is this social group, as our study showed, more than others, is inclined to believe misinformation and propaganda. They have a level of trust in the so -called "alternative" media is twice as higher than that of the population as a whole.