Europe responsible for refugee crisis
This week the pro-Kremlin media heighten their attention on European authorities. During the past days, leaders of the EU have been blamed for all that is wrong regarding the refugee crisis, including people drowning in the Mediterranean Sea.
Germany has been particularly targeted. One of the loudest voices to be heard is pro-Kremlin anchor Dmitryi Kiselyov. During his show last week (http://bit.ly/21f2IOY), there were claims that Germany and the EU were cynically destroying Greece by sending there refugees from the Middle East; that the EU will soon collapse under the weight of problems connected to refugees; and that the main cause for the collapse will be Angela Merkel. Despite the evidence of Russia bombing civilians in Syria, Kiselyov’s colleague, Vladimir Solovyov, also claimed that it is the USA and the EU who do not care how many Arabs have been killed.
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Only a few days ago, Jānis Sārts, director of NATO’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, assessed that Russia is trying to undermine Angela Merkel by waging an information war designed to stir up anger in Germany over refugees: http://bit.ly/1QZh3cF
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The Slovak pro-Kremlin website “Zem a vek” claimed that the EU will soon dissolve due to Angela Merkel's autocracy: http://bit.ly/1Qvkvyr. The German Chancellor was targeted also by a popular video-blogger who calls himself Ivan Pobeda (“Victorious Ivan”) http://bit.ly/1QviSkk (multiplied by a Czech pro-Kremlin outlet nwoo.org: http://bit.ly/1QA2Pms); and in another popular TV show Vremya Pokazhet (http://bit.ly/1npxNSw), which claimed that Angela Merkel and Donald Tusk are responsible for the thousands of people who have drowned in the Mediterranean.
And some further claims regarding the EU by media specialised in spreading disinformation: the EU is a totalitarian regime that refuses any level of criticism (http://bit.ly/1p909T7 // http://bit.ly/1R1s1V9); and the EU has Nazi roots because Walter Hallstein, the first President of the Commission of the European Economic Community, was a prominent Nazi and a member of NSDAP (http://bit.ly/1R1swyo // http://bit.ly/1Yjep7k // http://bit.ly/1p90AwH).
The West doesn’t care about Ukraine anymore
As we reported in the last two Reviews, after a brief break when the main subject was Turkey, the pro-Kremlin outlets have re-focused on Ukraine. This trend continued also in the stories reported to us during the last week.
The majority of disinformation claims that the EU and USA have lost interest in Ukraine. Again, this claim could be heard during Kiselyov’s show (http://bit.ly/21f2IOY); during Pyotr Tolstoy’s show (http://bit.ly/21SQuha); or in another video-blog coming from the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (http://bit.ly/1R1LIMG).
The pro-Kremlin outlets also recycled the several weeks old fake video (see e.g. Disinformation Review 14), where alleged Azov fighters threaten Dutch people with terror attacks: the pictures where actors pretending to be members of Azov batallion burn the Dutch flag were used in yet another Youtube video (http://bit.ly/1OWVE2t).
Finally, the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, having repeatedly told us that Ukraine is governed by Nazis, now warn us in their latest video-blog (http://bit.ly/1npWZIO), that in a few weeks there will be a coup in Kyiv .. carried out by Nazis.
Do not forget our nuclear weapons!
The pro-Kremlin outlets did not forget to intimidate with the threat of war. This time, the stage for this intimidation was Syria. Igor Korotchenko, chief editor of "Natsionalnaya oborona" ("The National Defense") journal, kindly recalled that the Americans have to understand that any ground operation in Syria will lead to a global nuclear war (http://bit.ly/1TXPE11).
And yet, while Russia's nuclear arsenal is taken as a logical tool to stop any other country from doing anything unfavourable to the Kremlin, nuclear bombs of other nations are considered with great alarm - even when they do not exist. Thus, we heard on Vremya Pokazhet show, that the Ukrainians are able to that the Ukrainians are able to develop a nuclear bomb within the next six months (http://bit.ly/21SQuha).
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Thank you very much for your reports, we are looking forward to new ones.
East StratCom Task Force
 Follow us on Twitter @EUvsDisinfo
For contributions, please e-mail jakub.kalensky@eeas.europa.eu.
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The Disinformation Review collects examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation all around Europe and beyond. Every week, it exposes the breadth of this campaign, showing the countries and languages targeted. We're always looking for new partners to cooperate with us for that.
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The Disinformation Digest analyses how pro-Kremlin media see the world and what independent Russian voices say. It follows key trends on Russian social media, so you can put pro-Kremlin narratives into their wider context. And finally… some Friday Fun before the weekend!
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DISCLAIMER: The Disinformation Review is a compilation of reports received from members of the mythbusting network. The mythbusting network comprises of over 450 experts, journalists, officials, NGOs and Think Tanks in over 30 countries. Please note that opinions and judgements expressed here do not represent official EU positions.
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