Disinfo: COVID-19 was released from a US lab

Summary

The coronavirus disease is connected to a leak from an American biological laboratory. This is allegedly evidenced by the silence on the issue by the US and its satellites, which points to only one possible conclusion – there was some sort of leak from the laboratories that have been built all around the world. COVID-19 was first found in Wuhan, but the lab in Wuhan is American. Similar American laboratories operate in Georgia and Eastern Europe.

Disproof

The article rests on a disinformation narrative based on two conspiracy theories: that there are secret biological laboratories run by the US around the world and that COVID-19 was supposedly created by the West in these laboratories for nefarious purposes.

Pro-Kremlin media have been spreading conspiracy theories about supposed US secret laboratories for years, claiming they are part of a biological and chemical attack against Russia and other countries. Laboratories in Ukraine and Georgia, which are part of an international cooperation with the US for tackling biological threats, are frequently targeted by Kremlin-controlled media in this context. As evidenced in the database, no evidence exists to support Kremlin’s allegations, which have been repeatedly debunked by independent fact-checkers and experts who have visited the sites in question and found nothing suspicious. In fact, many of the labs in question are actively engaged in fighting dangerous diseases and viruses, including COVID-19.

The claim that the coronavirus disease is manmade has been repeatedly debunked by numerous fact-checkers and medical experts, meaning there is no possibility that the disease originates from a biological laboratory. The overwhelming consensus among experts is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has natural origins.

Read similar disinformation cases claiming that: the medical technology to infect people with COVID-19 was developed 5 years ago, that coronavirus might be a biological weapon, that Ukrainian migrant workers brought COVID-19 to Spain and Italy from secret US labs, that coronavirus was created by Americans in a bio-laboratory in Kazakhstan, and that the US develops biological weapons in Ukrainian laboratories.

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bgr.news-front.info (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 242
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 29/04/2021
  • Article language(s) Bulgarian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: US, Georgia
  • Keywords: laboratory, coronavirus, Virus / bacteria threat, Conspiracy theory
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Disinfo: Accusing Russia of the Vrbetice explosion attempts to abort its rapprochement with Europe

Every time that there is a rapprochement between Russia and any EU country affecting energy supplies, there are setups like the alleged Russian involvement in the Vrbetice explosion. The West does precisely what they accuse Russia of doing, hybrid warfare. When the Nord Stream 2 was close to being approved we saw the case of the alleged poisoning of Alexei Navalny, and now, when Russia is helping Czechia in the nuclear field, we see a supposed intervention of Russian agents to blow up a munitions dump as in a James Bond movie.

All this only serves to maintain Europe under the US geopolitical aegis, along with UK and Poland, which is their lapdog. Europe is at a crossroad: for the first time, its first trade partner is not the US but China, and Russia will have to be a first-class trade partner as well. So in face of this change, there is resistance from those who, until now, rather than partners, have been the masters and owners of Western Europe.

Apr 28, 2021
Disproof

This is part of a disinformation campaign about the events surrounding the Vrbetice explosion in 2014, which killed two people and led to the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the Czech Republic in April 2021.

Contrary to the claim, accusations of Russia’s involvement in the Vrbetice explosion in 2014 are backed by conclusive evidence. The investigation by Czech authorities established beyond doubt that GRU [Russia’s military intelligence] agents Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin, the same individuals considered responsible for the attempted murder of Sergey Skripal in Salisbury in 2018, were behind the Vrbetice explosion (see here for further details). In the same fashion, the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny wasn’t a plot against Nord Stream 2 but a Russian intelligence operation, as has been proven by international investigators (see here our previous debunk).

Disinfo: Western-Russian relations deteriorated because of Western actions

It is noteworthy that relations between Russia and Western countries, in particular, the United States of America and the countries of the European Union, deteriorated against the background of the Ukrainian crisis, the return of the Crimea to the motherland in March 2014, and the West's imposition of sanctions on Russia.

Apr 28, 2021
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative attempting to put responsibility for the deterioration in relations between Russia and the West exclusively on the latter, ignoring the reasons behind the sanctions.

The West and specifically the EU has imposed restrictive measures, including sectoral sanctions, as a result of the of the illegal annexation of Crimea and Russia's destabilising actions in eastern Ukraine.

Disinfo: Many defended DNR and LNR against Kyiv military operation

In the aftermath of the coup in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, the citizens of the Donbas region announced the establishment of two popular republics - the Donetsk Republic and the Luhansk Republic. The Ukrainian regime responded to this action by launching a military operation in an attempt to regain control of the region. The attempt was unsuccessful, as many citizens of the region, most of them Russians or Russian speakers, volunteered to defend the two popular republics.

Apr 28, 2021
Disproof

Recurring disinformation message about eastern Ukraine, claiming that the aggression came as a response to the 2013-14 protests in Kyiv, often painted as a coup d'état, while claiming that local dwellers resisted alone without Russian military support and founded the DPR and LPR, at the same time undermining Ukrainian statehood.

Ukraine is not at war with millions of people from Donetsk and Luhansk as pro-Kremlin disinformation often likes to present it. The aim of these messages is to present the situation in Eastern Ukraine as an internal conflict, ignoring irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in the region. These claims intentionally misrepresent the reality of Russia's direct and crucial important support to separatist militant groups in Eastern Ukraine.