Disinfo: Civilians in the Finnish concentration camps in Carelia are victims of genocide

Summary

Civilians in the Finnish concentration camps in Russia’s Carelia during WWII are victims of genocide and should ask for a compensation from Finnish authorities.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation message focusing on Finland and Russia's Karelia during the WWII. This time the topic peaked on pro-Kremlin media's agenda in October 2019 after Russia's Security Service FSB released "secret documents" about the conditions in the Finnish camps. The researchers have studied the treatment of civilians detained in the Finnish camps established in the Finnish-occupied Soviet Karelia in WWII, and nothing suggests Finns aimed at a genocide of Russians or Slavic nations. The word genocide is frequently used in pro-Kremlin disinformation, but it seldom corresponds to the actual definition of a genocide. Recently, the emphasis of the disinformation campaign has been on Sandarmokh, where 7000-9000 victims of Stalin's terror were executed in the Republic of Karelia, Russia, 1937-1938. Hundreds of monuments have been erected in Sandarmokh to commemorate the victims. To distract audiences from discussing Stalin's era repressions, beginning 2016, a disinformation message started being spread that among the dead were Soviet prisoners of war shot by invading Finns during 1941-44. There is no evidence to support the claim. Read the full debunk for Sandarmokh here.

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RIA
  • Reported in: Issue 170
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 29/10/2019
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: USSR, Finland, Russia
  • Keywords: Karelia, Genocide
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Disinfo: Volunteers from Eastern Europe had a workshop on the organisation of "colour revolutions"

The West has been – for decades – attempting to influence the minds of young people from the former Soviet Republics in order to use them to achieve foreign political goals. This time, the annual training of young “civic activists” from 15 countries took place in the capital of Moldova. In an atmosphere of strict secrecy and with American money, volunteers were told about strategies to combat power, about the organisation and media support of mass protests. As it turned out, these professionals from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and other Eastern European states shared their experiences of forcibly changing the power in their countries and opposing “Russian influence”. CampCamp2019 conference was organized by the Prague Civil Society Center (PCSC), which receives funding from the US budget, allocated under the law “On countering the enemies of America through sanctions.”

Oct 28, 2019
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative presenting all activities of NGOs, media or civil society activists as measures to overthrow the power in post-Soviet states. Also, a conspiracy, according to which the US prepare in secrecy people of the former Soviet Republics to work for foreign forces. The event CampCamp2019 was organized in Chisinau from 24 to 27 October by the Prague Civil Society Center. It focused on campaigning and communications for civil society activists, as mentioned on the official page of the event. The participants were invited to improve their communication skills, to find ideas for public campaigns, to learn about new formats, trends and tools for civil society communications, to share campaigning experience with colleagues from other cities and countries. There is no mention about how to organize mass protests and about opposing “Russian influence”. There was also no "atmosphere of strict secrecy": the event has a public web page in two languages – Russian and English. The PCSC is funded by many donors, such as the Oak Foundation, the European Commission, and the Governments of Sweden, the Czech Republic, the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Read a similar case here.

Disinfo: Today it is Halloween, tomorrow it's a rubber woman

Halloween is a completely artificial holiday, which is accepted because it is fashionable in the West. That is the idiocy. Today it is Halloween, and tomorrow it is a rubber woman. This is unnatural, not normal.

Oct 28, 2019
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation about West's moral decay. Read similar cases claiming that Western males are feminised semi-men and the West is lobbying for perversion. The tradition of Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honour all saints. When large numbers of immigrants, including the Irish, went to the United States beginning in the mid 19th century, they took their Halloween customs with them, and in the 20th century, Halloween became one of the principal U.S. holidays, particularly among children.

Disinfo: US has no interest to support Georgia's prosperity

The US has no interest to support Georgia’s prosperity. They principally do not care if Georgia fulfills its conditions of [NATO] integration process… And it is not only about Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Former Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen offered Tbilisi to give up on the claim over these territories as if the Article 5 should not cover them.

Oct 28, 2019
Disproof

Recurring Pro-Kremlin narrative on the US and NATO, which aims at sowing mistrust and nihilism in Georgian society towards the West. In 2009 the US and Georgia signed a US-Georgia Charter on Strategic Partnership, which advances bilateral cooperation on priority areas, such as defense and security; economic, trade, and energy issues; people-to-people and cultural exchanges. Read more about US-Georgia relations here. US firmly supports Georgia's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders. More about the NATO/US military assistance to Georgia can be found here. As for the narrative about Rasmussen, this is a manipulative interpretation of the former NATO Secretary General's statements. Speaking at the 5th Tbilisi International Conference co-organized by McCain Institute and Economic Policy Research Centre, former NATO Secretary-General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen said [13:07 - 15:00] that in case of Georgia’s accession to the alliance, it should be discussed internally whether Article 5 covers only the territory that is actually controlled by the Georgian government and applies to the occupied territories only after Georgia restores its jurisdiction there. As an illustration, Rasmussen brought an example of Germany, saying that West Germany joined NATO in 1955, while East Germany became a member of the alliance only in 1990, following German reunification. See similar cases here, here, and here.