is due before a summit of former Soviet and EU states in Riga in May.

Poland’s former foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, last spring initially floated the idea of creating an EU-funded, Russian language TV station.

But little happened until the Netherlands stepped in with the EED grant after a passenger plane, flight MH17, was shot down over east Ukraine killing 193 Dutch nationals and 105 other people.

Evidence indicates that Russia-controlled rebels caused the disaster using a Russia-supplied rocket system.

But Russian state media have tried to sow suspicion the Ukrainian air force did it in order to prompt Western intervention in the conflict.

The EED study is one of several initiatives.

Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, and the UK are drafting an informal paper on how EU institutions and Nato can co-ordinate “strategic communications”.

The BalticStraujuma told press in the Latvian capital on Wednesday (7 January).

Dangerous monopoly

The Russian propaganda campaign is much bigger than MH17 disinformation.

Russian state media have mobilised support for the war on Ukraine by demonising Ukrainians as “fascists” and by alleging that last year’s revolution was a US-fabricated “coup” designed to harm Russia.

They are also feeding anti-EU and anti-US sentiment in Europe, in part by depicting Russia as a defender of orthodox values against EU promotion of gay rights and multiculturalism.

Well-funded Russian broadcasters, such as RT, have hired big names, including former CNN anchor Larry King, and air programmes in English, French, German, and Spanish as well as Russian.

Their work is backed up by pseudo-NGOs.

Putting the Dutch grant in perspective, British think tank Chatham House estimates the Russian “NGO” component