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Disinfo: John Bolton’s book is part of a soft coup against Trump

Summary

Much before the book of the former US National Security Advisor John Bolton was published, rivers of ink and hours and days of airwaves were devoted to comment some of the leaked chapters in media outlets, radios and TV stations. It is important to put this in context. After the failure of Russiagate and the impeachment process, there is something that we could label as a soft coup against Trump months before the election.

Disproof

Conspiracy theory, with no evidence provided to support the claim. This merges several recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about an alleged plot against president Donald Trump, articulated before through a “fake Russiagate” and an impeachment process, and now through a colour revolution and other elements. The fact that the book attracted a lot of media attention is due to the high interest that both the figure of Trump and Bolton bring out among the public, not to any external element as suggested.

You can see other examples of these disinformation narratives in our database, such as claims that the Deep State is behind the racial justice protests in the US; that it is pushing Donald Trump towards war with Iran; that any US president will be assassinated if he confronts it; that the Assange case represents Trump’s capitulation to these dark powers; that Covid-19 is a biological weapon created by Bill Gates, George Soros and the Deep State, and its vaccines will lead to Full Spectrum Dominance; and that the whistleblower who triggered the impeachment inquiry was linked to Soros.

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publication/media

Sputnik Spain (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 203
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 25/06/2020
  • Language/target audience: Spanish, Castilian
  • Country: US
  • Keywords: Donald Trump

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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Italian fight against coronavirus “fake news” could lead to Orwellian system of thought control

In Italy, dissidents from dominant thinking are increasingly blacklisted and silenced. There is a climate of witch hunts typical of a system that considers dissidents as enemies who should be destroyed. The fight against “fake news” related to the COVID-19 epidemic has made this trend increasingly evident. Fake news verification commissions have been set up, lists of allegedly unreliable  Italian websites are compiled by a foreigner, videos on the epidemic “contrary to the standards of our community” are removed from YouTube. If this mechanism becomes state policy then Italian journalists, writers or bloggers such as Maurizio Blondet, Massimo Mazzucco, Enrica Perucchietti, Silvana De Mari, Danilo  Quinto, Diego Fusaro – or politicians like  Sara Cunial – will be blacklisted and put in prison.

First, the most prominent dissidents would disappear, hunted by the political police, deprived of their freedom, “cured” by state psychiatrists and finally shot by a Party assassin. But in this Orwellian system nobody would be safe: the Party could also imprison people who express criticism by mistake. This new society would resemble Nazi Germany with its Gestapo and death camps, Stalinist Russia with its Gulag and psychiatric hospitals, and Pol Pot’s Cambodia. Such a scenario could happen in present-day Italy.

June 28, 2020
Disproof

Conspiracy theory. No evidence is provided to support the article’s claims that Italy is becoming or could become a totalitarian dictatorship that persecutes and exterminates dissidents.

The article repeats a recurring pro-Kremlin narrative that seeks to discredit liberalism claiming that liberal societies are (or are becoming) totalitarian systems ruled by “globalist elites” and “shadow governments” which persecute anyone who expresses views that dissent from dominant “politically correct” liberal-globalist thinking.

The west is craving for lewdness

American diplomats raised the gay flag on their country’s embassy building in Moscow … coinciding with the start of the vote on a package of constitutional amendments, including “protecting the institution of marriage as a union between men and women.”

The West has turned to new sodom in its craving for lewdness.

June 28, 2020
Disproof

This message is consistent with recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the moral decay of the West and the propaganda of the morally corrupt West, aiming to encourage Russophobia.

The British and U.S. embassies in the Russian capital both flew rainbow flags to celebrate Pride Month, along with a joint statement from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States calling to “protect the rights of all its citizens, including sexual minorities… as expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.

The Polish Government denies the political will of the population of Crimea

The Government of the Law and Justice Party has not given up not a single issue,  which prevents normalisation of relations between Kyiv and Moscow – primarily, it continues to deny the political will of the population of Crimea [Referendum of 2014].

June 28, 2020
Disproof

Recurrent disinformation about the illegal annexation of Crimea.

The so-called referendum was organised under Russian illegal occupation without complying with neither the Ukrainian electoral code nor the Russia electoral code. The annexation has been condemned by the UNGA (see the resolution A/RES/68/262 on the territorial integrity of Ukraine).
No international body recognises the so-called referendum, announced on 27 February 2014 and held on 16 March 2014. A year after the illegal annexation, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted that the plan to annex Crimea was ordered weeks before the so-called referendum.
The Polish authorities have repeatedly stated that the Russian “referendum” organised in the occupied Crimea was illegal. The Polish Government urges Russia to stop the military occupation of Crimea.