The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has called on its members to apply sanctions to Russian propagandists and state media of the Russian Federation, as well as to recognize the Russian Orthodox Church as an instrument of Russian influence and propaganda, said Yevhenia Kravchuk, a member of the permanent delegation of the Verkhovna Rada to PACE (the Servant of the People faction).

"The relevant resolution ‘Propaganda and freedom of information in Europe’ was adopted with 117 affirmative votes! The resolution stipulates that the member states of the Council of Europe must protect themselves from all forms of propaganda, including propaganda of war, incitement to genocide and other international crimes, hatred, terrorism and discrimination, and they must also be able to counteract and neutralize propaganda that contradicts the fundamental values of the European Convention on Human Rights," Kravchuk wrote on Facebook.

She said that the Ukrainian delegation managed to strengthen the text of the document with its edits.

"In particular, we called for targeted sanctions against Russian media outlets such as RT and its affiliates, as their activities violate journalistic ethics and should be considered a threat to the national security of member states; to impose targeted sanctions against propagandists such as Margarita Simonyan, Olga Skabeeva, Vladimir Solovyov and others, if this has not already been done; to recognize that the Russian Orthodox Church is being used by the Kremlin regime as an instrument of Russian influence and propaganda," Kravchuk said.

According to the MP, PACE has given recommendations to the member states of the Council of Europe, including the creation of appropriate independent regulators for media supervision, taking measures to promote equal access to information for all groups of the population, including women, youth and the socially vulnerable. The recommendations also include promoting media and information literacy and investing in media and civic education programs to develop critical thinking; providing public broadcasters with independent and sufficient resources to fulfill their mission in the public interest; strengthening the transparency of media ownership and financial sources.

Kravchuk believes that Russian propaganda is currently the biggest threat to freedom of information in Europe and beyond, and "the adopted resolution is an important step towards its eradication."