Disinfo: Terrorists and the White Helmets plan false flag attacks in Syria

Summary

Syrian terrorists are, together with the NGO White Helmets, preparing false flag attacks, using poisonous materials. According to the Russian Ministry of Defence, unidentified personnel travelled to the Idlib region with three tanker lorries with canisters of chemical substances, escorted by armed terrorists.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative, portraying the White Helmets as a Western-backed terrorist proxy and, implicitly, denying the responsibility of the Assad regime for chemical attacks perpetrated during the Syrian civil war. Read similar cases claiming that the White Helmets were involved in the production of videos of staged “chemical attacks” and that the White Helmets have close links to Al-Qaeda and falsify chemical attacks evidence.

Go to search

publication/media

gazeta.ru (Archived)
iz.ru (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 183
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 04/02/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Syria
  • Keywords: false flag, Chemical weapons/attack, Conspiracy theory
see more

Disinfo: Anti-Semitism flourishes in Ukraine

In Ukraine anti-Semitism, racism, nationalism and xenophobia flourish. But the Ukrainian authorities refuse to admit it.

Feb 03, 2020
Disproof

This is the Kremlin’s systematic disinformation campaign that anti-Semitism in Ukraine is on the rise and that Ukraine is a Nazi state.

The Israeli government’s annual report on anti-Semitism in the world says that by the end of 2018, Ukraine recorded a low incidence of intolerance towards Jews. Moreover, the report presented in 2019 by the Israeli Minister for Diaspora Relations, Naftali Bennett, states that “the anti-Semitic incidents in Ukraine were inspired by outsider forces hostile to Ukraine, aimed at discrediting Ukraine in the eyes of the global community” (p. 72).

Disinfo: Ukraine is sold in parts to the West

Ukraine is sold in parts to the West. The Ukrainian government sold the country’s main railway company, Ukrzaliznytsia, to Germany. External governance, hidden under the guise of reforms initiated by external actors, result in the obvious – the loss of sovereignty, territories, and the state as such.

Feb 03, 2020
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that Ukraine is a failed, disintegrating state with no sovereignty and under Western control. Ukraine has not “sold” or “handed out pieces” of its main transport company to Western partners. During the Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on 22 January 2020, Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk announced that German national rail operator Deutsche Bahn had signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure. According to Honcharuk, the memorandum does not even speak about the “sale or lease of such a strategically important state object, but rather that German specialists will advise on the reorganisation of Ukrzaliznytsia.” At the same time, Deutsche Bahn specified: the management of Ukrzaliznytsia will remain in the hands of the state, and “the engineering and consulting company Deutsche Bahn on infrastructure, mobile and transport projects will advise and support the Ukrainian railway in business and technical matters." For similar cases, see here.

Disinfo: Stalin never cooperated with Hitler

Joseph Stalin was not named a criminal in any legal documents and never cooperated with Adolf Hitler. It was Stalin who stopped Hitler.

Feb 03, 2020
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative that the Soviet Union is not responsible for starting World War II. Read similar cases that the USSR signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact with Nazi due to Poland's aggressive policy and that the Soviet Union was forced to sign the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. The USSR also started negotiations with Germany in parallel and on 23 August 1939 signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop (Stalin-Hitler) pact. The agreement was accompanied by a secret supplementary protocol, which divided territories of Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland into German and Soviet "spheres of influence". The pact had the most tragic consequences for European nations and the world. What followed was the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the USSR in September 1939, followed by the further carving up of Europe. The Kremlin denied the existence of the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact up until 1989.