The sharpening of the refugee issue
empowers Moscow, says KAPO’s report

Laas Leivat
Raising the volume of debate surrounding the politically emotional issue of mid-east refugees is detrimental to Estonian society. That’s the conclusion of KAPO’s (Security Police) annual report. It’s beneficial for Moscow, exploiting any confusion in Estonia to disrupt solciety, and causing disuntity within the European Union and NATO.
In this regard the report states that nationalistic extremists in Estonia are in a peculiar way supporters of Moscow’s goals. Its a paradox, that this sector, that should be motivated by western tolerance, european liberalism have placed themselves contra the European Union, NATO and the USA.
The report outlines in detail Russia’s enormous propaganda machine and accused the Kremlin of helping to bolster anti-EU sentiment in Estonia. The extreme nationalists have used the refugee crisis to instigate fear and thus seerve Russian propaganda as a reliable source of information.
The report contains concrete examples of how Russian propaganda has taken advantage of the refugee problem to fule latent anti-refugee sentiments. Last October 13 a camera crew of the Russian Rossija channel Vest news group, including a news correspondent, camera operator and driver all had obtained tourist visas, two of them issued by Finnish and and one by Lithuanian authorities. They drove to the refugee billeting centre at Vao, where they tried to find someone from Syria to interview. They found a man from Pakistan, who, hidden from the camera, explained how refugee are hated in Estonia.
The TV team had been saying that they were intertested in talking to Syrians to confirm that the Russian military involvment in Syria is justified. But on October 14 the team filmed an anti-refugee demonstration. As a starter they interviewd former Estonian foreign minister Kristina Ojuland who is known for her anti-refugee stance.
(Pikemalt Eesti Elu 29. aprilli paberlehes)

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