"In recent weeks and months, every now and then we hear people saying that the upcoming elections in the Bundestag next year are supposedly threatened by Russian hackers, who will be part of a "hybrid war." I asked whether there is any concrete evidence of these allegations and I received only one specific reference to the leaked e-mails by the US Democrats in response. They accuse Russians of this leak, and believe that the same can happen in Germany. However, I must say that these accusations are very doubtful," Hunko told Sputnik.
US-Russian relations reached a new low on December 29, when outgoing US President Barack Obama announced the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, the closing of two Russian diplomatic compounds and new sanctions against Russian individuals over Moscow's alleged interference in the November US presidential election.
Russia has flatly denied all accusations that it organized the hacking of email accounts of Democratic Party officials and Clinton's campaign chief, John Podesta, and then leaked them to the whistleblowing anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
In an interview with Sputnik, Hunko also commented on the Brussels' decision not to extend the East StratCom Task Force that was supposed to counter the alleged Russian propaganda on the territory of Eastern Europe. Whether it means that the anti-Russian rhetoric among European countries will slow down remains questionable.
"I'm afraid that the propaganda, saying that elections in the West are in danger because of Russian infiltration and cyberattacks will continue," the expert said. "Possibly, East StratCom just proved to be not really suitable instrument for this purpose."
According to the expert, by promoting negative image of Russia, media and authorities seek to influence political sentiments in their countries.
"By promoting the propaganda issue, the authorities provoke an atmosphere of ‘McCarthyism,' when people with different views on Ukrainian or Syrian conflict, will be called ‘Trojan horses of the Kremlin' or something like that," Hunko concluded.
In 2015, the European Union created the East StratCom Task Force, within the European External Action Service (EEAS), to tackle "Russian disinformation." The task force consists of communication experts from EU institutions, which fund their activities for short-term projects.
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