The General spoke at an international conference on strategic communications of NATO.
Moscow has challenged the world order with its own “national model of society” according to Pavel, and does not pursue a policy of aggression towards NATO in a traditional sense.
He suggested that the Russian information policy used “hybrid tools, in particular, propaganda disseminated by the media and social networks”.
“Russia is trying to shake the way Western society perceives NATO, its goals and actions,” Pavel explained. “It does this very effectively, because the public usually perceives information through captions and abbreviations, artificially created information may seem right,” he added.
In spreading Russian information in open Western societies, the content of news that the public receives is not controlled, Pavel said, unlike news in Russia.
“We must show our opponents that aggression is pricey, and it has little chance of success,” he concluded. Pavel called on the Alliance to strengthen their unity that Russia “is trying to undermine”.
In mid-April, NATO Deputy Secretary Rose Goetemüller, speaking in Kiev, listed among the Alliance’s tasks “the fight against misinformation and propaganda, cyberattacks, increased interaction in the intelligence sphere and the exchange of information”.
Secretary General of the Alliance Jens Stoltenberg too noted, that it was important for the organization to react quickly to emerging challenges, as was the case in the Skripal affair, and to demonstrate unity.
Czech President, Milos Zeman, however questioned at least the current Western narrative of alleged Russian involvement in the Skripal affair. The president said a report provided by Czech military intelligence showed that a nerve agent known as A230, which was produced by the Czech Military Research Institute located in the city of Brno, was, in fact, Novichok.
Zeman agreed with the opinion of military intelligence, Czech media reported, saying the nerve agent could have come from any number of countries and not only Russia.
The Czech leader told the Barrandov TV Channel: “It would be hypocritical to pretend it is not so, there is no need to lie.”
In March, Zeman ordered an inquiry into whether Novichok had been manufactured in the Czech Republic, after the Czech government, including the Prime Minister Andrej Babis as well as the foreign affairs and defense ministers, had vehemently denied the assertions.
The British authorities had immediately accused Russia of being solely responsible for the Skripal poisoning and expelled a number of diplomats, but the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden and the UK itself could also have produced the nerve agent.