Disinfo: NATO Defender Europe 21 exercise looks like rehearsal for WWIII

Summary

Provocative military maneuvers under the US Army guidance close to Russian borders are destroying the European security system. The concept of Defender Europe 21 evokes a rehearsal for World War III. NATO and its partners overestimate their preparedness, crafting plans of joint military operations against Russia.

Disproof

This publication promotes a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative accusing NATO of hostility towards Russia.

NATO is an Alliance based on collective defense. As is declared on the official webpage of the Alliance:

"NATO's purpose is to guarantee the freedom and security of its members through political and military means".

NATO's exercises and military deployments are not directed against Russia, nor any other country. Exercises are designed to ensure that NATO forces are trained, able to operate together and ready to respond to any threat from any direction.

Read similar cases alleging that NATO prepares to attack Russia, or that the Alliance is driven by Russophobia and enlarged to the East despite promises not to do that.

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  • Reported in: Issue 240
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 22/03/2021
  • Article language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Russia, US
  • Keywords: Defender Europe 2020, Military exercise, WWIII, Conspiracy theory, NATO
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Disinfo: Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is a descendant of Nazi collaborators

After World War II, many Ukrainians, collaborators with Nazi Germany, found sanctuary in the USA and Canada and their descendants (such as Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland) actively participated in defining these countries' policies towards Ukraine.

Mar 21, 2021
Disproof

Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation targeting former Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and painting her as a Nazi sympathiser because of her grandfather’s presumed activities.

Freeland has been a constant target for Russian disinformation. She is banned from travelling to Russia, as part of the tit-for-tat game of escalating sanctions that the Russians played in the wake of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Freeland is obviously singled out for attention as leading voice in the Canadian government concerning Russia’s actions there.

Disinfo: The 2014 coup turned Ukraine into a Nazi state

The Ukrainian Nazis are the most anti-Russian force in Ukraine. Not surprisingly, they are at the forefront of the ongoing processes in Ukraine, transforming the country into an increasingly Nazi state.

And in 2014, former Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, delayed signing the Association Agreement with the European Union, in an attempt to bargain for compensation for agreeing to open the Ukrainian market to European goods, thus destroying Ukrainian industry.

However, instead of compensation, he obtained a complete coup d'état, prepared in advance from abroad, and carried out by Nazi militants. From this moment the Nazis became the leading political force in Ukraine, and the country's transition to a Nazi dictatorship began.

Immediately after the 2014 coup, the new regime abolished the law allowing the use of the Russian language in its speaking regions. Immediately, there was an uprising in southern and eastern Ukraine, and civil war broke out. In most regions, the army and Nazi forces were able to suppress the demonstrations, with the exception of Donetsk and Lugansk, which were able to provide armed resistance and are now unrecognized republics.

Mar 21, 2021
Disproof

This disinformation message contains multiple pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives casting Ukraine as a Nazi-sympathizing country. This narrative groundlessly equates present-time Ukraine with Nazi Germany, and misrepresents the current status of the Russian language in the country, while portraying popular Euromaidan protests as a coup.

Linking some countries with Nazism is a widespread disinformation tactic used by pro-Kremlin outlets. Read more in our analysis "Nazi east, Nazi west, Nazi over the cuckoo's nest". The myth about Nazi-ruled Ukraine has been the cornerstone of pro-Kremlin disinformation about the country since the very beginning of the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests, which disinformation outlets try to portray as a coup d’état.

Disinfo: Accession of Crimea to Russia has taken place in strict accordance with international law

The accession of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea to the Russian Federation has taken place in strict accordance with international law.

Such a form of exercising the right of peoples to self-determination enshrined in the UN Charter was the only way to protect the interests, dignity and lives of Crimean residents in the face of threats from nationalists and neo-Nazis who seized power in Kyiv in an unconstitutional armed coup.

Mar 21, 2021
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the illegal annexation of Crimea, claiming that Crimea voted to rejoin Russia through a legal referendum and that Euromaidan was a coup d’etat.

It was not a "legal accession", but an illegal annexation of the Ukrainian territory. No international body recognises the so-called referendum in Crimea. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution entitled “Territorial integrity of Ukraine”, stating that the referendum in Crimea was not valid and could not serve as a basis for any change in the status of the peninsula. On 17 December 2018, the UN General Assembly confirmed its non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea.