Kaja Kallas on the Kremlin's plans and hybrid threats

A meeting of European Union defense ministers is taking place today in Brussels. Just before the start of the meeting, the head of EU diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, made a short statement to the media. She reported that new intelligence indicates that the Russian Federation is "planning further acts of sabotage and attacks against our democracy, aimed at dividing our societies and intimidating them into refraining from providing assistance to Ukraine."

Sabotage may include, but is not limited to: arson, intentional damage to machines, work tools, production lines or vehicles, as well as, for example, damaging energy networks, pipelines, bridges or communication systems. Sabotage may also include contamination of raw materials, cyber attacks, or overloading company or institution servers to cut off customers from online services. Sabotage can also be informational and psychological. An example would be spreading disinformation.

Why are we so easily fooled by disinformation?

Disinformation is one of the most important, dangerous, cheapest and most effective tools of hybrid warfare. It is dangerous because it is much more difficult to expose it than lies or fake news. This is not completely false or misleading information, but something that is very real, and most often the starting point for a false image is a real event. These are manipulated or out-of-context content that actually reverses the point of view.

What is disinformation used for and why is it used so often by, for example, Russia? It is supposed to arouse emotions, influence public opinion, people's decisions and therefore the course of events. Its main purpose is to lead to division, and therefore polarization and conflict in a given society.