Language:

See all Disinfo Cases - Detail

Disinfo: Lugar lab all the more suspicious as Georgia has not signed biological weapons convention

Summary

Georgia is not a signatory to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), an international treaty banning the production of biological weapons. This makes the operations of the Lugar lab, a reference laboratory of the Georgian National Center for Disease Control, even more suspicious.

Disproof

Recurring narrative about Lugar Laboratory. The claim that Georgia is not signatory to the BWC is just another touch to the picture which a recurring pro-Russia narrative on the Lugar lab attempts to paint. The lab has been accused of a number of heinous crimes, from experimenting with germ strains that would selectively target ethnic Russians to testing biological weapons on humans. Here is a roundup of Lugar lab-related disinformation narratives. Georgia acceded to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction on 22 May 1996.

Go to search

publication/media

myvideo.ge Resource (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 135
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 29/01/2019
  • Language/target audience: Georgian
  • Country: Georgia
  • Keywords: Lugar Laboratory, Biological weapons

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.

see more

PACE resolutions have no power

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is an outdated and toothless organisation, which doesn’t do anything clever. It is a club of people who like to talk about everything. Resolutions are simply not needed because they have no power.

January 31, 2019
Disproof

Among other instruments of influence, PACE has the right to demand action from 47 European governments, who must jointly reply, question Presidents and Prime Ministers on any topic it chooses, sanction a member State by recommending its exclusion or suspension, etc.

"Though it has no power to pass binding laws, PACE holds a constant dialogue with governments, national parliaments, other international organisations and civil society which "sets the agenda", says the official website.

Among the Assembly's most important achievements are ending the death penalty in Europe by making it an accession condition, inspiring a host of national laws by pressing for new convention, creating a forum for debating controversial social or political issues. For example, according to one of the resolutions, Russian deputies were deprived of the right to vote in PACE, as well as the right to be represented in its governing bodies, because of Crimea annexation, military aggression in Donbas, etc.

Süddeutsche Zeitung – an instrument of London and Washington for sowing hatred towards Russia

As the European elections are approaching, the Anglo-Saxons are desperate to stop the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, and curb the success of the European parties that are opposing the sanctions again Russia. An article in the German Daily Süddeutsche Zeitung is an example of these attempts. At the 75th anniversary of the end of the siege of Leningrad, the paper published a russophobic attack on the commemoration of the victims. Attacking the memory of the Russian people’s heroism in the fight against Nazism is done to drive a wedge between Moscow and Berlin.

January 31, 2019
Disproof

Conspiracy theory, presented without any evidence. The original article raises the question whether it is appropriate to memorialise the tragedy - "A monstrous crime by the Wehrmach", "A genocide" - with military parades instead of solemn remembrance. The siege of Leningrad was never memorialised in this way before; the parade is a first of its kind on this day. Russian pro-Kremlin media have also published texts, voicing criticism about the military parade.

The interventions of the US, the EU and NATO resulted in civil war in Ukraine and Russia played no role in this

The US, the EU and NATO intervened in Ukraine, which resulted in civil war. Russia had nothing to do with it.
“Since the interference and subversion of the USA, the EU and NATO, a precarious civil war takes place in the country which, at the same time, is the driving force of an impending war against Russia… The ‘Ukrainian democracy movement’, the “Maidan”, was a chimera, an invention cooked up in the poisonous kitchens of the Western secret services”.

 

January 30, 2019
Disproof

No evidence given. Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation about the war in Ukraine and Ukraine's statehood.

The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has stated that "the information available suggests that the situation within the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol amounts to an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation". This international armed conflict began at the latest on 26 February when the Russian Federation deployed members of its armed forces to gain control over parts of the Ukrainian territory without the consent of the Ukrainian government.