FN's program menager Rosana Aleksoska, in an interview for the "Truthmeter" fact-checking platform on 31 January, 2022, spoke about how the Russian influence is surfacing in some crucial periods and key events for the country. We are broadcasting some of the points that Aleksoska made during her interview.
Aleksoska underlined the importance of the fact that this malign foreign influence is coming from authoritarian and illiberal states and it should be characterized as "Sharp power". This concept in reality means that these authoritarian regimes in their own states are suppressing the freedom of speech and do not have respect for the human rights, while at the same time they misuse those very values of the democratic open societies to promote illiberalism and authoritarianism. She also contextualized the sharp power to the Western Balkans by adding that "Authoritarian influence in the young and vulnerable democracies of the Western Balkans is characterized as "shar" in a sense that it penetrates in or perforates the information space, trying to influence the citizens through manipulation and information distortions."
Aleksoska also gave explanation of the the main drivers of disinformation and information operations and why it is important to have proper comprehension of the matter.
Disinformation and information operations are driven by the misconceptions, misperceptions and misbeliefs that exist within the part of the population. On the other hand, the dissemination of disinformation and propaganda contributes toward strengthening these misperceptions, misconceptions and misbeliefs.
Aleksoska also touched upon the interests of Russia from a geopolitical point of view thus explaining what are the interests and how one should analyze Russia's foreign policy through the prism of the current unprovoked and unjustified aggression on Ukraine.
Russia interest is for the region to be part of her "sphere of influence" and cannot accept the fact that almost all of the countries in the region became members of NATO. In this period, this strategy of Russia can be witnessed from the situation with Ukraine, where besides the long standing Hybrid warfare that was driven by Russia since 2014, she went step further by demanding from a sovereign state to shape its foreign and domestic policies not in the best interest for its citizens but to suit the Russian interests. All of this, including the suffering of the Ukrainian citizens and the state, more than 14.000 Ukrainians lost their lives, the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine is being violated, all of this is countering the basic principles in international relations that are actually securing the global peace and security. - elaborated Aleksoska
At the end Aleksoska made a point indicating that as a member state of NATO this country has a different role both in the domestic and international communication emphasizing that the time of the non-aligned movements is long overdue.
What is surprising is that certain structures in society still behave as if North Macedonia is not a member of NATO, although it will be almost two years since its accession to NATO. NATO is above all an Alliance, which means that we have entered into a defense-security alliance with the other 29 member states and of course, we should take part in any defense operation that NATO is undertaking or plans to undertake. - Aleksoska concluded.
Please find the whole interview on this link.
