Croatia has joined other EU member states in protesting Russia’s alleged propaganda.
In contacts with the Russian side, Croatian officials have never made any objections regarding the alleged anti-EU or anti-Croatian propaganda, or any other information activity that could be detrimental to Croatian interests, said a source from the Russian Embassy in Zagreb, reacting to information confirmed by the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that on 12 October Croatia sent a letter to the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini demanding more efforts on suppressing Russian propaganda and hybrid warfare. The letter was signed, in addition to Foreign Minister Marija Pejčinović Burić, by ministers from the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Great Britain and Sweden, reports Večernji List on October 25, 2017.
The source from the Russian Embassy says they are “puzzled by the decision of the Croatian side to join the initiative to strengthen the strategic communications group’s potential, created for the information warfare against Russia,” and surprised that Croatia is “on the frontlines of a sophisticated and intensive campaign conducted by external factors.”
“We are sorry that the Croatian side has moved in this direction at the time when we are activating bilateral cooperation, and after positive results of the official visit of the Croatian President to Russia,” the source added.
With this letter, Croatia has position itself as part of the group of countries which have been talking about the Russian information campaign for some time. But, the letter also opens another, far more important question. Sending such a letter less than a week before the official visit of Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović to Russia reopens speculation about whether it was timed to disrupt that step in relaxing the relationship between the two states. However, diplomatic sources say that is not true – the anti-propaganda initiative has been underway for some time, and it was not related in any way to the President’s visit to Russia. The timing of the letter was dictated by Federica Mogherini. And the focus of the Croatian side in the “information war” is not so much on Croatia, but on southeast Europe – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia.
Still, diplomats who wanted to remain anonymous say that Croatia has sent a wrong message. At a time when there are efforts to improve relationship with Moscow, the positioning against Russia offers two conclusions.
The first is that Croatia has two different foreign policies – one implemented by the President and the other carried out by the government. It is not clear whether this is a question of a “good cop-bad cop” approach or just non-coordination between the President and the government.
The second conclusion is that Croatia is presenting itself as a state which cannot be trusted. The two countries know positions they are in and that Croatian attitude is determined by membership in the EU and NATO. But, while the President said that Croatia was interested in co-operation and did not mention any issues with Russia’s propaganda, the government in its letter labelled Russia as a country which “wants to create distrust and dissatisfaction with democratic system, discredit the EU and transatlantic community”, and described it as dangerous factor in both the EU and Southeast Europe, which is by no means a good basis for dialogue.
Translated from Večernji List.
