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Issue 43 - 11 October 2016
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The MH17 Investigation is Russophobia!
During the last week, pro-Kremlin media continued their accusations and far-fetched conspiracy theories regarding the investigation into the murder of 298 civilians on board flight MH17.
According to the outlet zavtra.ru, the whole “polemic” around the MH17 case is nothing but an attack “on the very existence of Russia”; in response, Russian patriots should now stress the glory of Russian history, like the victory in World War II, or sending a man to space (http://bit.ly/2dBYnHr).
A similar message was sent out by chief Kremlin propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov (http://bit.ly/2e5fzXF). According to Kiselyov, the Joint Investigative Team simply said that “Russia is to blame for everything” (although the JIT is yet to disclose the names of those who gave the orders: http://bbc.in/2dmfMTe), did not present any evidence apart from photographs and social media posts (the prosecutors in fact e.g. played recordings from intercepted phone calls during their news conference and quoted multiple eye-witnesses), and their imagination should be envied by the scriptwriters of Hollywood blockbusters.
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The website of Kiselyov’s TV channel also claimed that the image evidence could have been faked using Photoshop (http://bit.ly/2cZ7CNE).
Strangely, none of these channels explained whether the JIT also faked Russian TV reports from the day of the tragedy, when e.g. Lifenews reported that a plane had been shot down by pro-Kremlin fighters in the East of Ukraine.
For a more detailed elaboration of pro-Kremlin disinformation on MH17, see our recent Disinformation Digest: http://eepurl.com/chQYq1). One of the most outrageous disinformation attempts mentioned in the Digest claimed that there was actually no shooting down, and that the whole tragedy was staged. Pro-Kremlin media now repeat a similar pattern regarding the recent bombing of a humanitarian convoy in Syria, as did RIA Novosti (http://bit.ly/2dwZ6Z2), and Sputnik (http://bit.ly/2dMxltv) - calling the bombing “a well-prepared hoax”.
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It's not us doing something wrong, look at them!
With the Presidential elections in the US approaching, the clash between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton becomes a more and more important issue. Many media multiplied the story about an electrician allegedly finding “tens of thousands of fraudulent Clinton votes in Ohio”, started in English by Christian Times (http://bit.ly/2dg20Cn) - e.g. Pravda.ru in Russian (http://bit.ly/2dUI99N), or svetkolemnas.info in Czech (http://bit.ly/2doYKSE).
Another site repeated the popular conspiracy theory about forging votes for Hillary Clinton (http://bit.ly/2dY9zAa).
Again, we can see a hackneyed pattern here. When Russia was accused of bombing the humanitarian convoy, it started accusing others of doing it - e.g. the Syrian rebels or the US (http://eepurl.com/ciyjIb). Now, shortly after video evidence of election fraud during recent Duma elections in Russia is aired (http://bit.ly/2dDJILK), pro-Kremlin media counter by accusing others of doing the same.
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Meanwhile the Belarusian service of Sputnik claimed that TIME magazine readers voted Trump as the winner of the first Presidential debate (http://bit.ly/2dPlcI9) - although the vote count on the site shows a 50-50 result (http://ti.me/2cGV5BN).
And finally, another website, truepundit.com, ran a story titled “Hillary Clinton Proposed Drone Strike on Julian Assange” (http://bit.ly/2dCyOry). Also this article was promptly translated for a Czech pro-Kremlin outlet, this time for ac24.cz (http://bit.ly/2e24YsQ).
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Europe means criminalisation of criticism, Nazis, no-go zones
Very often, pro-Kremlin media come up with such blatant disinformation that it is even hard to guess what piece of reality they might be “reporting”. Just a brief overview of some of the completely fabricated stories in this week's table:
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- The Swedish Prime Minister thanked Finland for upholding diplomatic relations with Russia http://bit.ly/2dGHjjC (no, he did not);
- Ukraine is heading towards becoming a Nazi regime http://bit.ly/2dD7ZUI (no, it is not);
- The German government and intelligence services criminalise criticism of immigration policies http://bit.ly/2dDIH8O (no, they do not);
- Private armies and special forces are ready to take down the governments of any of the former Soviet Republics in case they dare only look in the direction of Russia http://bit.ly/2e50dCz (really?);
- The Eastern Partnership policy of the EU is to blame for the crises in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine http://bit.ly/2dZhXu1 (no, it is not); and tells the post-Soviet countries that they should break up with Moscow (no, it does not);
- The Soviet Army only fired blank shots during the events around the Vilnius TV tower in January 1991 http://bit.ly/2dxhEcT (no, it did not);
- 65 Swedish municipalities are “no-go zones” http://bit.ly/2d85RBg (no, they are not).
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Download the FULL TABLE (.pdf) of disinformation pieces
collected for the Disinformation Review issue No 43
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