IGA took part in the international conference Cooperation Summit – Europe’s Rising Power organized by Warsaw Institute Foundation in cooperation with Central & Eastern Europe Council – CEEC, which took place on November 30, 2023, in Warsaw. The event featured discussions of the strategic, political, media and economic opportunities and challenges ahead of Central and Eastern Europe and the Three Seas Initiative
Dr. Rumena Filipova participated in the panel “Disinformation in CEE” alongside Jessika Aro (journalist, Tehy ry), Kristóf György Veres (researcher, Danube Institute and Warsaw Institute) and Paweł Pawłowski (expert, Warsaw Institute). moderator of the discussion. IGA’s chairperson highlighted Russia’s instrumentalization and distortion of history as a key mechanism for exercising malign informational influence, which also exerts an impact on contemporary perceptions of strategic orientation, media and democracy. She proposed that strategic communications on the government level represent a vital complement to civil societal activities in the process of countering disinformation. Jessika Aro noted the real-world impact of Russian disinformation on personal, societal and national security. Kristóf György Veres discussed Russia’s weaponization of religious identity, and in particular, influence through the Russian Orthodox Church, as a key component of the Kremlin’s infringements on the freedom of speech.