31st July 2022

Clare Daly says she has been “mischievously” represented by “established media” and opponents

Earlier this week, Daly was named on a Ukrainian security list of people who allegedly promote Russian propaganda.

MEP Clare Daly has said that she and her fellow MEP Mick Wallace have been “mischievously” represented by the “establishment media” for their views on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The pair have been vocal critics of EU and Nato policy towards Ukraine, and came out against Russian sanctions by the EU following the invasion.

Daly and Wallace also voted against condemning the Russian invasion, which earned the duo praise from Russian State media.

Speaking on The Indo Daily podcast, Daly told presenter Denise Calnan that she has “roundly condemned Russia for starting this war” but the Nato and US role in the conflict cannot be ignored.

The Kildare native opposed sanctions on Russia because she said they don’t stop the conflict and inflict more pain on the public. And sanctions, in her words, “prolongs the war”.

Daly said that opposition and the media have spun some of the narrative to make it appear that she is soft on Russia.

“Some of our positions have been spun mischievously by some political opponents but also deliberately, I think, by sections of the establishment media,” Daly said.

“To spin them into something different, if you like, my opposition to sanctions is somehow ‘oh I’m soft on Russia and I don’t want Russia damaged or anything’, there’s no so such thing.”

She added: “We’ve been accused of being Putin puppets and all this but nobody has ever been able to produce a single word anywhere that shows me supporting Putin. He’s a right-wing neoliberal nationalist and I have nothing to do with them now or ever.”

• Earlier this week, Daly was named as part of a Ukrainian secret service dossier, listing public figures who are alleged to promote Russian propaganda.

72 worldwide public figures are presented on the list entitled ‘Speakers who promote narratives consonant with Russian propaganda’, with Daly placed alongside the likes of French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, American journalist Glenn Greenwald and German-Finnish entrepreneur Kim Dotcom.

Daly is featured with her own specific alleged credentials marked as “pro-Russian narratives”, accusing Daly of promoting both the narrative of “sanctions against Russia terrify the suffering of innocent people” and that the overall conflict in Ukraine represents “a war for confidence / proxy war between NATO and Russia”.

Daly is the only Irish public figure on the list.