“Europe looks very pale”: the Federation Council discussed the information front of the economic war

Opening the meeting, the chairman of the commission, Alexey Pushkov, emphasized the relevance of the topic raised. “The economic confrontation is the key to the general confrontation between Russia and the West,” said the senator. “Ukraine is, so to speak, the front line and the visible part. The economic confrontation is a competition between the rear, resource bases, mobilization capabilities, and the share of runway allocated to military-political goals to achieve a successful result.”

And in this struggle, the information component is becoming increasingly important, since “in the West, attempts are now being made to neutralize the political and informational significance of Russian economic successes.”

As an example of such attacks, Pushkov cited the recent statement of the new British Foreign Minister David Cameron: the West, supposedly, has nothing to worry about, since its total GDP is 25 times higher than Russia’s gross domestic product.

“What a loud, so absolutely ignorant statement,” the senator is categorical. “What is important is not the total GDP of a group of states, but what is important, firstly, is the share of GDP that is used to achieve military-political goals. And secondly, the consent of society to this.” .

Meanwhile, in many Western countries there are now problems with both. First of all, attention is drawn to the situation in the United States, which, according to Pushkov, has become the weakest link in the Western coalition: “Part of society and the political class does not consider it necessary to allocate even the one and a half percent of GDP that the Biden administration proposes, even a smaller figure , for economic assistance to Ukraine. Because it faces a large number of problems on the territory of its own country.”

Speaking about Russian economic victories, Pushkov cited recent data from Rosstat: over the past year, the country’s GDP grew by 3.6 percent. As Pushkov noted, Russian growth rates are higher than those of all G7 countries.

According to the senator, one can hear different explanations for this phenomenon. Including the fact that the main reason for the relatively rapid growth of the Russian economy is “the rapid development of the military industry, so to speak, the transfer of money from the peaceful sector to the military sector.”

Pushkov believes that there is no point in paying attention to these details: “Listen, in terms of information, this is not significant. Individual experts know this… The era of information is the era of symbols. People live by symbols and myths. And if symbols also correspond to reality, then They look very convincing.”

The senator highlighted three most important strategic results achieved by Russia during the economic confrontation. First, there is the “psychological shock that the West experienced when it saw that the sanctions had a very limited effect.”

Secondly, the successful reorientation of Russia towards new foreign markets. “This is an extremely important point,” emphasizes the head of the “information” commission. “If the global south had joined the West, our situation would have been more complex.”

The third point: the contrast between the growth rate of the Russian economy and the low rates of economic development in Europe, primarily Germany. “The fact that Europe looks very pale in comparison with Russia, subjected to powerful sanctions pressure, is quite obvious,” says Pushkov. “This also has a very significant psychological impact. And it undermines, by the way, the rational principle in the European policy of breaking with Russia, in politics total hostility towards Russia. Undermines the focus on isolating Russia. If it doesn’t work, then why?”

The correct information strategy in the current situation, the senator believes, should consist of an analysis of our economic condition – current and future. It is desirable, the senator clarifies, that the analysis be “objective, based on serious” numbers.” “It is very difficult to put forward counter-arguments against the numbers,” Pushkov concludes. Counter-arguments can be made against opinions. This is now becoming a strong element of our external communications strategy.”

During the meeting, which lasted more than two hours, senators and their invited guests exchanged their thoughts and ideas. For example, Sergei Glazyev, member of the Board (Minister) for Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission, made a detailed report on untapped reserves of economic growth.

Summing up the results of the event, Alexey Pushkov noted with satisfaction the fruitfulness of the past discussion. He, in particular, noted the complaints expressed by one of its participants against Russian television, which is not sufficiently engaged in economic education among the population.

“It seems to me a very reasonable idea that we really don’t have an economic program on television,” agreed the head of the commission. I’m going to talk to the management of the channels about this.”

However, in information work with the population, the senator warned, there is no need to go too far with apologetics: “There are such trends, I also heard this on our television: how wonderful it is that we have diverged from the West on all positions, now we finally have free development “Well, this primitivism is also not needed. Hyper-propaganda is not needed.”