Pro-Kremlin platforms go on the offensive on after investigation into Russian bounties on U.S. troops
By DFRLab At least five narratives emerged on Russian outlets and social media, following a well-established playbook A number of pro-Kremlin and Kremlin-funded outlets spread various disinformation narratives accusing the United States of intentionally spreading an allegedly fake story about the Kremlin offering the Taliban bounties to kill U.S. and British servicemembers. The narratives appeared on fringe media outlets before migrating to state-sponsored propaganda outlets like RT and Sputnik, which were then spread…
By EURACTIV The European Union imposed on Thursday (30 July) travel and financial sanctions on a department of Russia’s military intelligence service and on firms from North Korea and China over their suspected participation in major cyberattacks across the world. In its first ever sanctions related to cybercrime, the EU targeted the department for special technologies of the Russian military intelligence service, known as Main Directorate of the General Staff…
July 31, 2020 - 08:31
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Kremlin propaganda has long propagated narratives about alleged pro-Russian sentiments in eastern Ukraine. These narratives are intended to deflect attention from the presence of Russian troops in Donbas and to present Russia’s aggression in Ukraine as an internal conflict, a civil war. At the same time pro-Kremlin media are busy trying to convince their public that in Ukraine there are many supporters of unification with Russia, particularly throughout eastern Ukraine,…
By EU vs Disinfo Despite evidence pointing to the contrary, pro-Kremlin media continues to claim Russia had nothing to do with downing flight MH17, poisoning the Skripals, or interfering in the US elections. In addition to these old classics, this week brought a new disinformation pearl. You know how people sometimes express themselves and only later realise that their words could have been interpreted in different ways. However, when it comes to Russian foreign…
July 30, 2020 - 12:42
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Former Ukrainian MP Oleg Tsarev who is currently living in Russian occupied Crimea announced that Ukraine’s dreams have come true and NATO troops have entered Donbas. He made this declaration during a talk show on the First Sevastopol Crimean television channel, while discussing the Trilateral Contact Group decision about a full cease fire in the Donbas war zone effective July 27 and the deployment of peacekeepers in the area. The…
July 29, 2020 - 10:07
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The Sea Breeze international military exercises dedicated to security and stability in the Black Sea have been conducted since 1997. They are training exercises and are not directed against any country. Russian media are calling this year’s international Sea Breeze 2020 military exercises sabotage and accusing Ukraine and NATO countries of violating Russian borders and deliberately raising tensions on those same borders. “Kyiv is hatching the idea of waging a…
By Edward Lucas, for CEPA To Properly Combat Putin’s Actions, We Need to Understand How the Kremlin Thinks Since its publication last week, the British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee report on Russia has drawn much attention. As a long-standing Kremlin critic (and the first witness to the inquiry), I feel enjoyably vindicated. The report lambasts previous British governments for overlooking the threat, while the intelligence and security agencies earn scalding rebukes for their…
By Kate Starbird, republished in NiemanLab “While a single disinformation campaign may have a specific objective — for instance, changing public opinion about a political candidate or policy — pervasive disinformation works at a more profound level to undermine democratic societies.” The COVID-19 pandemic has spawned an infodemic, a vast and complicated mix of information, misinformation and disinformation. In this environment, false narratives — that the virus was “planned,” that it originated as a bioweapon,…
By EU vs Disinfo “The Threatened Kingdom” By EU vs Disinfo Once upon the Time, in a kingdom far, far away, a dragon was keeping the entire people hostage, poisoning it with its toxic breath. The people of the kingdom forgot everything that was important: values, decency, memories of the past. The dragon made people believe they were happy. A valiant prince did not succumb to the dragon; his people was immune…
July 25, 2020 - 08:02
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Ukrainian soldiers are in Germany for training. All of them were tested negative for coronavirus before departure. Donbass Today, the official publication of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR, LPR) and the Russian internet company Yandex featured stories this week claiming a group of Ukrainian soldiers were sent to participate in international exercises in Germany without being tested for Covid-19 prior to their departure. The source cited is…
