Russia's FIMI
31.03.2025
In cooperation with the Secretariat of the Community of Democracies and Delegations of the United Kingdom and Ukraine to the OSCE, Polish Mission organised an event on Russian Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) addressed to the diplomatic corps in Vienna.
Mantas Adimenas, the Secretary General of the Community of Democracies, underlined in his opening speech that FIMI is one of the most destructive weapons, and that liberal democracies are particularly vulnerable to disinformation. Hence, there is a need to strengthen resilience against FIMI also among diplomats. At the OSCE, diplomats are confronted daily with Russian propaganda, disinformation, historical distortions, lies, and even offensive language.
Jacek Sawicz, chargé d'affaires a. i., referred to the example of ruthless Russian manipulation at the OSCE forum, where Russian diplomats presented manipulated front pages of newspapers (the French "La Croix" and the British "Hull Daily Mail") as evidence of the alleged lack of Western support for Ukraine.
The meeting focused on the pilot study "Russia's Worldwide Information Manipulations on Telegram and X" and the document "Counter-FIMI Toolbox for Diplomats" presented by one of the co-authors, Dr. Ofer Fridman, a lecturer at King's College London. Both studies were co-financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Ambassador Yurii Vitrenko, Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the OSCE, summed up the discussions comparing Russian embassies around the world to "disinformation and propaganda factories". At the same time, he stressed the importance of building awareness of FIMI and disinformation as well as the need of strengthening resilience against this threat not only of diplomats, but more broadly, of the societies of our countries.
