By EU vs Disinfo “Krym – nash! Crimea is ours!” This was the slogan Russian authorities used for celebrating the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula – a process which started five years ago, in February 2014. Since then, the Crimean question has not only been a struggle over territory; the annexation also laid the ground for a struggle over truth, which remains until this day. Polite and green men Heavily…
Last week Russia’s Izvestia newspaper announced that Kyiv was preparing to launch an offensive in Crimea during the Christmas period. Citing an anonymous “highly placed source in Russian diplomatic circles”, Izvestia claims that Ukraine will launch a land offensive in an effort to provoke Russia to respond and after Moscow responds, shout from the rooftops about Russian aggression. Russian media all dutifully picked up this fake story as did Kremlin…
On November 25 Russia fired on two Ukrainian naval gunboats and a tug boat in the Kerch strait, wounding at least six Ukrainian sailors. A Russian naval boat rammed one of the Ukrainian vessels, after which Russians captured all three Ukrainian ships and sailed them to Kerch. The wounded Ukrainians are in a Kerch hospital while the rest of the ships’ crews are being held and questioned by Russian by…
Since Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014, Russian media have been busy constructing their narrative about the happy haven that they claim Crimea is today. This narrative was rattled by a recent draft resolution condemning human rights violations in Crimea approved by the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian & Cultural Issues) of the UN General Assembly. Komsomolskaya Pravda, RT, the monarchist orthodox site Tsargrad and others complained that…
Fake: Crimea EU representative office. Poland to leave EU. Donbas conflict participants create Russian-Ukrainian union. Ukraine to jail Russians for visiting Crimea.
By Robert Coalson, for RFE/RL Even back when construction of the controversial, $3.7 billion Crimean Bridge was just beginning, RT Editor in Chief Margarita Simonyan already knew how the story ended. Crimea Bridge: Made With Love! — a new film written by Simonyan and directed by her husband, Tigran Keosayan — is an uber-patriotic romantic comedy that was filmed against the backdrop of the rising edifice, which links Russia via the…
By EU vs Disinfo Since its illegal annexation in 2014, Russian authorities have tried hard to restore Crimea’s image as a holiday hotspot — including by faking tourism statistics. Russian media and pro-Russian media in Ukraine recently reported that the annexed peninsula has welcomed more than six million visitors this year, a figure trumpeted as a record in the peninsula’s post-Soviet history. The figure, which covers the first nine months of 2018,…
RIA Novosti, RT, Ukraina.ru and others featured stories last week claiming that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had called for a law that would make Russian tourists who visited annexed Crimea or the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics subject to criminal punishment. Russian talking heads immediately accused Kyiv of infringing on Russians’ rights, or orchestrating a Russian genocide, spreading Russophobia against a fraternal people while Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria…
Germany supports Russia’s annexation of Crimea and is ready to take steps towards recognizing the Russian status of the peninsula. Members of the German parliament are poised to gradually recognize the Ukrainian peninsula as part of Russia. On November 3 scores of pro-Kremlin media featured these sensational headlines, starting with the Russian daily newspaper Izvestia, followed by the Russian Defense Ministry television station Zvezda, Rambler, Kriminform and others. No matter…
Ukraine’s Deputy Minister for Information Policy Emine Jepar wants to return Russian-annexed Crimea to the Ukrainian using the Ukrainian Army declared Russian media this week. Ukraina.ru, Rambler, Times.com.ua all claimed that Jepar was advocating a military plan for the return of the peninsula during an October 22 press conference. Jepar did touch upon the theme of returning Ukrainian jurisdiction over Crimea, but she did not speak about using the…
