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News and Analysis

Figure of the Week: 6.4%

By EUvsDisinfo | June 26, 2018
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This week, Russian state media more than tripled the defence budget of Latvia, a NATO member and neighbour of Russia.

The bogus figure appeared on regnum.ru, a state-controlled Russian news website, which claimed that the Baltic country spends a whopping 6.4 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on defence.

The real figure for 2018 is 2 percent, up from 1.7 percent in 2017.

The incorrect figure was cited in a lengthy interview with a Latvian businessman who is a longtime critic of the Latvian government, the European Union, and NATO.

In a tactic characteristic of pro-Kremlin media, Regnum republished the interviewee’s claims without bothering to correct the figure for its readers.

Further reading:

https://euvsdisinfo.eu/disinformation-cases/latvia

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Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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