“Russia did not… (and anyway, there is no proof)”
In addition to these old classics, this week brought a new disinformation pearl. You know how people sometimes express themselves and only later realize that their words could have been interpreted in different ways. However, when it comes to Russian foreign policy, unlikely statements seem to be intentional rather than accidental. One of the most blatant examples is the claim that Russia’s foreign policy is “based on respect for international law and does not accept attempts to dominate, dictate the will of others over independent countries, nor interfere in the affairs of their sovereignty”. This sentence leaves audiences wondering whether annexing Crimea is not seen as interfering in the affairs of an independent country or facts have been twisted beyond recognition.
It’s precisely this “not interfering” in Ukraine or Georgia that prompted a group of US democratic senators to write a resolution against Russia’s participation in G7. Instead of addressing the reasons for this initiative, pro-Kremlin media used the Russophobia card. The same approach was adopted when the West noted that before the vote on amendments to Russia’s constitution – which will allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036 — campaigning both for and against the proposed changes was banned, thereby denying voters access to balanced information.
On the topic of democratic processes or lack thereof, pro-Kremlin media also leveled a number of groundless accusations against NGOs: hegemonic mainstream media, some political institutes, and NGOs used every mean at hand to express their rejection of Russia’s democratic process and funding NGOs explains how a man who calls himself a “philanthropist” [George Soros] managed to destabilize many European countries.
Corona continues
With the global pandemic showing no sign of abating and pro-Kremlin media claiming Russia has already found a vaccine, it is a good time to scrutinize how pro-Kremlin media have been covering the pandemic. As displayed by the timeline below, the main narratives are straightforward: Russia is doing great, while the West is on a losing streak.
Read all Disinfo Reviews by EU vs Disinfo.
Read more:
- “Black is the new orange”: Pro-Kremlin conspiracies on color revolutions
- “Let’s get the popcorn ready” – Russian tv covers US protests
- COVID-19 conspiracies, WWII revisionism, schadenfreude at US protests: Russian propaganda trends
- US protests in Russian propaganda: “A red, white and blue All-American maidan”
- Czechoslovakia should be grateful to the USSR for 1968 – Russian propaganda says
- A catalog of the Kremlin’s worst fears: This week’s Disinfo
- Russian propagandist invented 6 West-staged attempted revolutions in Belarus
- The only ‘color revolution’ likely in Russia now would be ‘brown’
