MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Wednesday, the European Parliament voted in favor of a resolution on countering Russian media outlets, such as Sputnik and RT. Out of 691 lawmakers taking part in the vote, 304 voted in favor of the resolution, 179 voted against it, and 208 abstained. Therefore, less than half of the lawmakers supported the resolution.
"This is a senseless resolution and I do not know, what its purpose is. After all the changes that have been caused by many elections in the western hemisphere, there was a feeling that we could cooperate very well, to solve all the arguments, especially between the West and the East, the [EU] lawmakers have suddenly proposed such an initiative, I think that it is very strange and futile," Nikolic said.
He added that Russia should not pay much attention to the resolution that aimed at creation of negative attitude, some kind of opposition from Russia's media outlets.
The EU parliament's resolution said that Sputnik and RT posed a danger to European unity and called for extra European Commission funding for counter-propaganda projects. It also draws parallel between Russian media and the propaganda disseminated by Daesh, a jihadist group outlawed in Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, commenting on the adoption of the European Parliament’s resolution on Russian media, congratulated RT and Sputnik journalists on effective work and stressed that this resolution indicated apparent degradation of the concept of democracy in the Western society. Putin also expressed hope that common sense would prevail and that there would be no actual restrictions against the Russian media.
