On 18 January 2018, the United Kingdom and France held a Defense Summit at Sandhurst revolving around Prime Minister Theresa May and President Emmanuel Macron.

It is noteworthy that these two states have decided to cooperate on two major issues: against Russia in the Baltic countries and terrorism in the Sahel. They have also decided to continue with the merger of their expeditionary forces that began at the time of the war against Libya [1].

A few days later, on 22 January, the head of the British Chief of Staff, General Sir Nicholas Carter, delivered a conference at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) [2].

General Carter’s position is that the West is continuing to develop and will not delay in acquiring genuine technological superiority over the rest of the world. Shocked by this approach, Russia which has powerfully rearmed herself, is now ready to try to unleash a new world war.

These words of the British Chief of Staff are in total contradiction with the US National Security Strategy. The latter, in contrast, highlights that there has been a steep decline in the scientific and technical level in the US. Furthermore, the White House has named Russia as a rival that is trying to break up the Atlantic Alliance and not as a threatening power.

The following day, on 23 January, the British National Security Council decided to equip the country with a new national unit tasked with fighting “disinformation” coming from foreign states in general, and Russia in particular. The spokesperson for the Prime Minister declared:

“We are living in an age of fake news and conflicting accounts (…) The government is going to respond to them by making better and more important use of national security communications to address these interconnected and complex challenges”.

Three months ago, Theresa May had denounced the Russian danger during a speech to the Lord Mayor [3]. It is worth highlighting that Mrs May had declared:

“Russia is seeking to make news into weapon, by deploying its medias, which are state-controlled, to spread false information and fabricated images in order to sow discord in the West and rock the foundations of our institutions”.

On this same day, within the European Union, the French President Emmanuel Macron announced the next initiative against Russian propaganda, while the Czech government has established a “Centre against Terrorism and Hybrid Threats”, under the authority of the Minister for Homeland Affairs. The product of an initiative of the Social Democrat Milan Chovanec, this Centre has been conceived to fight the media of the Czech opposition (Parlamentní listy, AE News, Lajkit.cz, Protiproud) which has been accused, without a scrap of evidence, of being fuelled by Russia.

Translated by Anoosha Boralessa

*

Notes

[1] “United Kingdom-France Summit Communiqué”, Voltaire Network, 19 January 2018.

[2] “Dynamic Security Threats and the British Army”, by General Sir Nick Carter, Voltaire Network, 22 January 2018.

[3] “Theresa May speech to the Lord Mayor’s Banquet 2017”, by Theresa May, Voltaire Network, 13 November 2017.