Context
Stories in the ‘Context” section are not fakes. We publish them in order to provide greater insight for our readers about the techniques, methods and practices used by the Russian government in its information war.
By Oiwan Lam, for Global Voices Days after the United States, the United Kingdom and France launched airstirkes in Syria in response to the suspected use of chemical weapons near Damascus by the Syrian government, Chinese President Xi Jinping called British Prime Minister Theresa May and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stressing the need to cool down the conflict and investigate the chemical attacks. But China’s state-owned media outlets echoed Russia’s allegation that…
By EU vs Disinfo An odd but not surprising theme appeared in Russian media during this week. Whereas threatening with the possible use of nuclear arms is a recurring theme in Russian state media, and from representatives of the Kremlin, talk about total annihilation is maybe more rare. On April 16 in one of the main programs on Russian state TV, a Member of the Russian Council on Foreign and Defence Policy stated that…
If Moscow wants its Syrian allies to skirt the blame for chemical attacks, they’re going to have to come up with some better evidence than a few beakers and boilers in a dingy basement. Russia and Syria say the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syriawas all a rebel-staged fake— and promise that they’ve got the evidence to prove it. But one of the pieces of evidence they say shows a…
By Polyghaph It seems that not only were rumors of Ian56‘s (@Ian56789) Twitter “death” (suspension) on Thursday exaggerated, but on Friday afternoon the world became acquainted with the real man behind the Twitter account with over 32,000 followers. And contrary to what you see in his profile pic, he’s not male model David Gandy. Ian56789 on Twitter vs Ian56789 in real life https://t.co/YOKc2xPopa pic.twitter.com/uJdXN9erwD — Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) 20 апреля 2018…
Sergei Ryabkov Russian Deputy Foreign Minister “Everything rested on the absence of UN Secretariat security department approval for a visit by OPCW experts to the site of the events in Douma.” Source: TASS FALSE The UN has confirmed the OPCW has authorization to inspect the site. On April 16, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told journalists that inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) were unable to…
By Polygraph Sputnik News and Zvezda “In Latvia, Hitler has become more popular than Harry Potter.” Source: TV Zvezda, Sputnik News FALSE Latvian booksellers are unloading old copies of Mein Kampf, not snapping them up. On April 2, Zvezda TV and Sputnik published the false claim that Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” is more popular in Latvia than Harry Potter, the fictional school child who is the main character of a popular series of…
By EU vs Disinfo EU countries are a favourite subject on Russian state TV. Every evening, the ‘gospel’ is watched for hours on end by millions in Russia, but also by Russian-speaking people in Eastern Europe, the Baltic countries, Scandinavia and the Caucasus. For three and a half years, NGO Ukraine Crisis Media Centre (UCMC) monitored the most popular daily news bulletins and talk shows on Channel One, NTV and Russia-1.…
Topics of the Week How do Estonian intelligence service assess the threat the Kremlin poses to Estonian national security? Read about Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional testimony. New US sanctions are hitting Russia hard, sending the stock market tumbling and targeting the wealth and businesses of several oligarchs close to Putin. If you want to know what the Kremlin thinks of the situation in Syria, read what its representatives say about it. Good Old Soviet Joke…
By Eliot Higgins, for Bellingcat With any war crime in Syria receiving significant media coverage, there has been a concerted effort by pro-Kremlin and pro-Assad individuals and media outlets to spread claims attacking the Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets), a major source of information and footage on war crimes in the conflict. These attacks generally fall into two categories: claiming that the White Helmets are Al-Qaeda or ISIS (or even…
Source: Iva Tsoy, for The Insider Speaking at the assembly of the Council of Foreign and Defense Policy on April 14, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that former GRU officer Sergey Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with the nerve agent BZ. “This formula was in service in the US, UK and other NATO countries. The Soviet Union and Russia never developed or kept such chemical substances,”…
