Disinfo: Dalia Grybauskaitė's opposition to the Astravets Nuclear Power Plant is an attempt to hide Lithuania's own failures in nuclear power

Summary

Lithuania’s attempts to shut down the Astravets nuclear power plant in Belarus are an attempt to get moral compensation for the closed Ignalina nuclear power plant, given to Lithuania for nothing when the Soviet Union broke down, and for the scandalous failure of the Visaginas nuclear power plant project – a topic that is taboo in Lithuania.

Disproof

Lithuania opposes construction of the Astravets Nuclear power Plant (NPP) as the project does not comply with the international standards of environmental protection, and is built on the site that was not duly justified over the alternative ones. On 7 June 2011, Lithuania lodged a complaint with the Implementing Committee of the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment (the Espoo Convention) on the Astravets nuclear power plant case. The February 2019 draft decision of the Meeting of the Parties of the Espoo Convention acknowledged that Belarus had failed to comply with some Convention provisions and encouraged Belarus and Lithuania to continue bilateral expert consultations. In her State of the Nation Address on June 11th, 2019, President Dalia Grybauskaitė, called to continue efforts for the complete shutdown of the Astravets NPP, stating: "Espoo Convention countries have concluded that [Astravets nuclear power plant] stands on an unsafe site. This is not about the safety of the plant – this is about its unsafe site. It means that no power station can operate there, and efforts to close the Astravets nuclear power plant must continue." Following the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, the EU decided that so-called High Power Channel Type Reactors (RBMK) and other first-generation Soviet-designed nuclear reactors would need to be shut down. At the time of its accession to the EU Lithuania agreed to shut down the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, which was built with the RBMK reactor. In 2012 Lithuania conducted a consultative referendum on the construction of the new nuclear power plant in Visaginas, east of the capital Vilnius. 62.7% of voters were against the project. For more disinformation cases on the Astravets nuclear power plant see here.

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sputnik.by (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 155
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 12/06/2019
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Belarus, Lithuania, Russia
  • Keywords: Nuclear issues, Conspiracy theory
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Disinfo: Kyiv has repeatedly deceived Moscow and violated bilateral agreements

Kyiv has repeatedly deceived Moscow and violated bilateral agreements, which significantly affected Russian-Ukrainian relations.

Jun 11, 2019
Disproof

No evidence given. It's Russia who violated several bilateral agreements signed with Ukraine, along with other international agreements. The violations of international law and agreements of Russia have been confirmed by the international community. This regards not only the annexation of the Crimea, but also non-compliance with the provisions of the Minsk agreements, the continued fire from the separatists in the Donbas, supported by Russia, Ukrainian political prisoners, the continuing arrests of the Crimean Tatars in Crimea, among others. The extension of sanctions against Russia has been supported by the member states of the European Union, the United States and a number of other countries, as one of the measures in response to Russia's violation of international law. Back in 2015, the Robert Schuman Institute listed a number of agreements that Russia violated. Since then, this list only increases. “By annexing Crimea, Vladimir Putin violated the basic UN documents, the statutes of the Council of Europe, of which Russia is a member, at least two regional treaties that established peace in Europe and two bilateral treaties that were signed with Ukraine, as well as the Constitution of Ukraine and Crimea” noted the document. Similar disinformation cases can be found here.

Disinfo: The Russian language is changing the world

Germans have started to give their newborn Russian names – Dimitri and Olga being the most popular – and US suggests to declare Russian the second most important language. The Russian language is changing the world.

Jun 11, 2019
Disproof

A misrepresentation of quotes. The German article referred to by Tsargrad presents a short list of ''the prettiest Russian names''. Neither Dmitri, nor Olga or any other distinctly Russian name is anywhere near the most popular names in Germany, according to German statistics. The claim that the US suggests Russian to be declared "the second most important language" is also a misrepresentation of a quote of a representative of NAFSA, the US National Association for Foreign Student Affairs, suggesting means of attracting US students to learn Russian.

Disinfo: US military leaders believed in a direct threat against America and the Western world from organised Jewry

U.S. military leaders in the first half of the 20th century widely believed that the world faced a direct threat from organised Jewry, which had seized control of Russia and similarly sought to subvert and gain mastery over America and the rest of Western civilization. In these military circles, there was an overwhelming belief that powerful Jewish elements had financed and led Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution, and were organizing similar Communist movements elsewhere aimed at destroying all existing Gentile elites and imposing Jewish supremacy throughout America and the rest of the Western world.

Jun 11, 2019
Disproof

Anti-Semitic hate speech.The News Front article is full of age-old, unfounded, anti-Semitic tropes. See here for other examples of anti-Semitic disinformation narratives. For information about EU-policies to combat anti-Semitism - see here.