Disinfo: OPCW leaks confirm Russian conclusions

Summary

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) issued a report in March 2019, which mentioned the use of toxic chemicals in the Syrian city of Douma in April 2018, but the report’s findings contradicted the conclusions of Russian experts who provided evidence that there was no attack, but rather a “theatrical play” organized by the members of the “White Helmets”.

In May 2019, OPCW documents were leaked, confirming the validity of Russian conclusions and putting the report’s findings into question. The organization has launched an investigation into the information leak and has accused two of its employees, whose names have not been released, of leaking sensitive information.

Disproof

Recurring disinformation narratives deflecting blame for chemical attacks from the Assad regime; painting the White Helmets as terrorists, and aiming to discredit the OPCW.

The "never-before-seen-report" appears to be an engineering assessment carried out by one individual who, contrary to Sputnik's false claim, was never a member of the Fact-Finding Mission and is not currently employed by the organization.

Furthermore, the "whistleblowers" declined to take part in the investigation that met instead with 29 witnesses between July 2019 and February 2020.

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  • Reported in: Issue 183
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 07/02/2020
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Syria, Russia
  • Keywords: Douma, OPCW, White Helmets, Chemical weapons/attack, Syrian War
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Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative that seeks to discredit the EU, claiming that the EU has abandoned genuine European values and traditions and is built on the worship of money and of free-markets. This narrative is consistent with the pro-Kremlin propaganda theme about decadent values and moral decay in contemporary Western societies.

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Disinfo: President Duda and President Zelensky promote propaganda

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Disproof

This message is part of the Kremlin’s policy of historical revisionism – it accuses Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic states of “falsification and re-writing” of their history. According to this policy, the Russian official historiography is the only “true” way of interpretation of historical events for the countries of Eastern and Central Europe.

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Disproof

This message is part of the Kremlin’s policy of historical revisionism and an attempt to erode the disastrous role of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact by the statements that the USSR was forced to sign this pact; that other European countries signed various international agreements with Adolf Hitler, the Munich Agreement triggered WWII and various historical conspiracies saying that Western democracies wanted to inspire a war between Nazism and Communism.

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