Disinfo: Pentagon calls to confront the Russian threat in the Black Sea with more missiles

Summary

Even more anti-aircraft missiles, exercises and military bases in NATO countries with access to the Black Sea. That’s how the Pentagon calls to confront the Russian threat. The details of this large-scale plan were recently published by the US government analytical centre RAND.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about US presence in Europe and NATO. The report by the RAND research centre actually says that it is Russia who is destabilising the region by using military force against other countries in the region for the fourth time since 2008.

"Russia is also using informational, economic, energy, and clandestine instruments to advance its goals of transforming the Black Sea, along with the Sea of Azov, into virtual internal waterways, where Russia can have the kind of freedom of action it has achieved in the Caspian Sea. While the Black Sea littoral countries want to protect themselves from Russian hostile interference, domestic political factors, as well as the countries' membership in or level of association with the European Union and NATO, influence the degree of overlap and divergence in their interests", claims the report.

The RAND report only made recommendations on what a strategy could be to protect the interests of the countries of the Black Sea region, given these threats. RAND is a nonprofit organisation, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest, but not the US government analytical centre as it was mentioned by Russian journalists.

publication/media

  • Reported in: Issue 169
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 14/10/2019
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: US, Russia
  • Keywords: International, Black Sea, US presence in Europe, NATO, Russophobia
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Disproof

One of the pro-Kremlin messages about the Kyiv government sabotaging peace in the Donbas region. See previous cases about the Minsk agreements and the war in Ukraine. According to the daily report by the SMM OSCE, the Mission recorded fewer ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but those violations were fixed from both sides. The same situation is with the withdrawal of forces. The SMM OSCE saw 16 weapons in violation of withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. Specifically, Steinmeier's formula calls for elections to be held in the separatist-held territories under Ukrainian legislation and the supervision of the OSCE. The withdrawal of forces is the other step that should be done before the planned elections. "There won't be any elections there if the troops are still there," said the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin narratives on NATO and US global role. This is an example of a narrative shift about the deployment of missile defence systems in Romania and Poland. Before, it was claimed that the US is deploying systems that are capable of launching Tomahawk-type cruise missiles, prohibited by the INF agreement. In fact, both Romania and Poland agreed to host missile defence systems. In 2010, Romania agreed to host Standard Missile 3 interceptor. As for Poland, Poland and the US signed agreement on the deployment of ground-based ballistic missile defence interceptors on the territory of Poland in 2008, but the project was cancelled following a fierce response from the Polish government. Instead, Aegis Ashore Ballistic Missile Defence System (AABMDS) will be deployed in an anti-missile station in Redzikowo, expected to be completed in 2020.

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Disproof

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