Tailored for disinformation heavy users: Conspiracy theories on Biological Weapons
Just to highlight some examples:
- 2016: The US is constructing secret biological labs in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine to attack Russia.
- 2017: American laboratory in Georgia creates biological weapons.
- 2018: US laboratory in Georgia is like a Nazi death camp and people living close to it like Mengele’s patients.
One strand of Russia’s large and months-long disinformation campaign around the Salisbury attack – which backfired latest in September and continues to backslide – has been spreading the usual smokescreen that anybody else but Russia is behind the use of chemical weapons on European soil.
Read also: Behind the smokescreen: who are the actors spreading disinformation on ex-Russian spy Skripal?
When the attempt to confuse and distract the majority of the European audience about the attack failed, efforts shifted and started to focus on the disinformation heavy users. In general, this aim of pushing the conspiracies from marginal to the mainstream attention has already gained results among the Russian-speaking audience:
Read also: Conspiracy: The US creates bioweapons in 400 countries (there are only 195)
In the specific case of Georgia, this has led to coordinated efforts, including a press conference organized in Moscow right after the UK released the names of the two Salisbury attack suspects. In the briefing, Georgia’s ex-security chief (who fled to Moscow years ago) claimed the Lugar laboratory creates biological weapons, and the topic was extensively covered by Russian TV channels.
In April, these claims were presented by Russia’s Foreign Ministry that came out with its own hint: A Georgian trace might be found in the Skripal poisoning! These conspiracies have reached Bulgaria, English-language blogs and ZeroHedge – and, of course, Russia’s disinformation channels Russia Today and Sputnik.
So, finally, let us introduce you to the Central Public Health Reference Laboratory (CPHRL)! It is a laboratory based in Tbilisi, Georgia, which detects and tackles disease outbreaks. The United States provided USD 350 million for the construction and technical equipment of the laboratory. From this year on, the Government of Georgia will assume responsibility for full funding and operation of the Lugar center and laboratory network. In fact, Russia has itself given support to a similar facility in Armenia (also facing repeated pro-Kremlin disinformation attacks).
Well-researched journalistic investigations highlight this specific disinformation campaign: we recommend you to read more on Myth Detector and Codastory.
War fakes
Earlier, we have reported how the pro-Kremlin disinformation machinery’s production line was cranking out false claims of the threat of a civil war in Sweden, France, Spain, and Ukraine.
This week, the civil war roadshow traveled northeast and we heard that same urgent alert regarding the Baltic countries: now it is Latvia that has apparently joined the European countries waging an internal war.
Read on the latest disinformation cases recorded by EU vs Disinfo in the online database.
Read more:
- Conspiracy: The US creates bioweapons in 400 countries (there are only 195)
- Russian media have published 20 different narratives on Skripal poisoning
- “Novichok” and robots in social media
- The bold assassination attempt on ex-Russian spy Sergey Skripal in Salisbury, England
- Moscow attacked Skripal for betraying Russian oligarchs
- How Russian propaganda denies a suspected chemical attack in Syria
- Also in Russia a Russian hand is seen behind the nerve-gas attack in Salisbury
- Russian media have published 20 different narratives on Skripal poisoning
- Behind the smokescreen: who are the actors spreading disinformation on ex-Russian spy Skripal?
- Three important lessons of the Skripal Case the West has yet to learn
- Five ways Russia is generating a conspiracy smokescreen around the Skripal poisoning
- Putin has come out a winner in the Skripal Case, Kirillova says
- The bold assassination attempt on ex-Russian spy Sergey Skripal in Salisbury, England
- Moscow’s development of poisons like one used against Skripal has long history and dark shadows
- Also in Russia a Russian hand is seen behind the nerve-gas attack in Salisbury
- In Skripal case, Kremlin following procedures it used for earlier political murders, Pastukhov says