It quoted Stanisław Żaryn as saying in a statement that “the Russian Federation, and recently also Belarus, have been stepping up their information warfare against Poland."
One instance of this, according to Żaryn, “is the spreading of information designed to put pressure on Polish energy policy," tvp.info reported.
Żaryn was cited as saying that “the Kremlin aims to force Poland into abandoning its efforts at independence from Russian energy supplies,” and that Moscow is attempting “to strengthen its own dominance in the region.”
To achieve these goals, Żaryn said, Moscow is seeking “to push American interests out of Europe, manipulate countries in our region,” such as Lithuania, as well as “spread lies to promote its own energy projects,” tvp.info reported.
In this connection, tvp.info said Żaryn referred to a recently unveiled Belarusian-Russian nuclear power plant in the city of Astravets.
Moscow has been lauding the plant as a hi-tech project “full of promise for Belarus,” and suggesting that Poland should buy energy there instead of building its own nuclear power station, according to Żaryn.
Yet “for all the propaganda,” he said in his statement, reports suggest “Astravets has been out of action for two months” after “yet another breakdown,” amid a shortfall of experts and “very low staff morale.”
He argued, as cited by tvp.info, that the plant’s “spectacular troubles" show “the Russian state is performing ever more poorly, sometimes to the point of ineptitude.”
“The increasingly vicious propaganda against the West is one of the Kremlin’s ways to paper over such failures," Żaryn wrote in his statement, which he shared with the state PAP news agency, tvp.info reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: tvp.info