Hanna Hopko, the head of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, is making her working visit to Washington, USA

On July 16, the committee head took part in an event organized by the Atlantic Council. The gathering was focused on Russia’s meddling in the 2016 United States presidential election.

In the course of the event, the participants developed recommendations for democratic countries astride the Atlantic, aimed at preventing intervening of foreign countries into national elections in future.

In this connection, the conferees noted that democracy in the US, Europe and other countries suffered from unauthorized foreign interference into national elections through dissemination of false information and news by the agency of the media, confidential information leakages and hidden illicit funding of candidates and their election campaigns.

There was also emphasized the importance of raising public awareness about ensuring impartiality in electoral races and existing dangers of foreign meddling in electoral processes, and possibilities of minimizing such threats.

According to the forumees, a society’s firmness against unfriendly foreign expansion heavily depends on clear communication.  This requires governments to develop comprehensive strategies aimed at improving security of electoral processes.

The participants emphasized that state authorities must allocate funds for counteracting unauthorized interference in election processes and dissemination of misinformation during electoral races. In addition, proper measures should be taken to empower a civil society to continuously monitor the situation and react to such interventions promptly.

It is also important to ensure the cooperation of technology companies with governments and civil society organizations in developing tools and procedures aimed to reduce vulnerability of social networks and to control over political advertising on the Internet.

Priority has been given to more active and sustainable transatlantic cooperation, including national governments, NATO and the European Union, in exchanging information on risks and threats as well as best practices to counteract unauthorized influence.

 

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