MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The West fears that alternative news coverage to mainstream media offered by the Russian media will affect the views of people on international and Ukrainian events, Alexei Pushkov, head of the foreign affairs committee of the lower house of Russia's parliament, told Sputnik Serbia Thursday.
"The West fears that those who are against the mainstream, against the 'universal' truth [offered by the Western media], that they can become subject to the influence of of RT or Sputnik, might 'find themselves in captivity' of Russian ideas about what is happening," Pushkov said.
The lawmaker added that a recent Pure Research poll revealed that only 30 percent of Germans believe that Russia is to blame for the crimes that are taking place in Ukraine, while the remaining 70 percent do not think so, which means that a powerful anti-Russia propaganda exists in the Western countries, but at the same time there is a strong opposition to it.
Many US and European media outlets adopted a one-sided approach to covering the Ukrainian events, accusing Russia of contributing to the military conflict in Ukraine.
In early June, Czech media reported that the European Union set up a special unit to counter what it says is "propaganda" coordinated by Russia amid the Ukraine crisis.
Meanwhile, an ICM poll published in April revealed that some 54 percent of respondents in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Greece said they did not trust mainstream media when it came to coverage of the Ukrainian crisis.
