Pro-Kremlin trope asserts the absence of freedom of speech in the EU, depicting it as a new Soviet Union that persecutes dissidents. The fact that there is a willingness to counter disinformation does not mean that the EU has a Ministry of Truth or that dissent and information are controlled as they were in the Soviet Union. Comparing Soviet dissidents to today's pro-Kremlin propagandists in the EU is absurd and could be seen as a form of negating of the crimes of the USSR. Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) are indeed a reality and the weaponised instruments of state actors like Russia represent a security threat. The EU along with its member state faces the challenge of countering them to preserve a space for democracy to develop without this pressure This was concluded in the first EEAS Report on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Threats. Furthermore, the EUvsDisinfo database has over 17,000 cases of disinformation from pro-Kremlin outlets, many of which target the EU. Accusations of censorship and attacks against freedom of expression are a recurring pro-Kremlin technique to defend the illicit actions of Russia’s state-sponsored disinformation outlets after Western authorities adopted measures against them. Claims of “interference” are also frequently raised to deflect any criticism of Russian authorities by international media. Read also relates cases such as: The EU calls any information it doesn’t like disinformation, or There are greater guarantees of freedom of expression in Russia than in the West, or The EU decision on Russia Today is a step towards self-destruction. https://euvsdisinfo.eu/report/the-eu-has-turned-into-the-soviet-union-and-launched-a-ministry-of-truth-like-in-1984/