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Disinfo: Russia is the global champion of free speech

Summary

Russia is the global champion of free speech. There, citizens and journalists enjoy an unlimited freedom to speak their minds. In this regard, Russia has largely swapped places with the West, where freedom of speech is progressively disappearing. In Russia, one is free to say “I like Putin” or “I don’t like Putin”; one can say “I like gays” or “I don’t like gays.” In America, however, saying “I like Putin but I don’t like gays” would amount to suicide.

Disproof

The 2019 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) puts Russia in 149th place out of 180 countries ranked for media freedom. The organization attributes this ranking to website blocking, marginalization of independent media outlets, pollution of the information space with government propaganda, and deployment of "draconian media legislation". In the US, all speech is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution, "unless it is intended and likely to incite imminent violence."

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publication/media

Ria Novosti (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 167
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 24/09/2019
  • Language/target audience: Russian
  • Country: Russia, US
  • Keywords: West, Western values, Propaganda, Freedom of speech

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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The resolution of the European Parliament shows that Europe has become insolent

The resolution of the European Parliament, which equates the Soviet Union with Nazi Germany, shows that Europe has become insolent. Europe keeps forgetting the signing of the Munich agreement between Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and France in 1938. Also, before the beginning of the World War II, the non-aggression pact with Germany was signed by England, France, Lithuania, Denmark, Estonia and Latvia, but it seems that such an agreement existed only between Germany and the USSR.

October 03, 2019
Disproof

This message is part of the Kremlin’s policy of historical revisionism and an attempt to erode the disastrous historical role of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact by stating that other European countries signed various international agreements with Germany after 1934. See other examples referring to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact here, here and here. It is a proven historical fact that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact contained the Secret Supplementary Protocol, which assumed the division of Poland and other Eastern European countries between the USSR and Germany. Thus, the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact directly caused the German and Soviet military aggression against Poland in September 1939, which resulted in complete occupation of this country by Germany and USSR. On 18 September, the European Parliament adopted a resolution, describing the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 23 August 1939 as a key element, causing World War II:

The Second World War, the most devastating war in Europe’s history, was started as an immediate result of the notorious Nazi-Soviet Treaty on Non-Aggression of 23 August 1939, also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and its secret protocols, whereby two totalitarian regimes that shared the goal of world conquest divided Europe into two zones of influence.

The text of the resolution can be found here. Read more about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: A 'honeymoon' for two dictators (Deutsche Welle); The Night Stalin and Hitler Redrew the Map of Europe (RFERL).

Serbia is caught in a trap set by the West

Since the 1990s, Serbia has been caught in a sort of trap set by Western powers because it is Orthodox and from the bottom of its heart in alliance with Russia.

October 03, 2019
Disproof

No evidence given. Conspiracy theory and recurring disinformation narrative about the alleged anti-Orthodox strategy of the West with the aim of causing distrust in the West. See a collection of earlier disinformation cases concerning the Orthodox church seemingly under attack from the West.

ECHR might rule to treat Russian control of Crimea as legal

Ukraine has filed a problematic complaint through the European Court of Human Rights against Russia, alleging violations of the human rights of both individual citizens, and violations against the Crimean Tatar minority on the whole. But how they’ve gone about it, may require to determine – whether overtly or de facto – whether Russia’s control over Crimea is illegal. [—] This places Ukraine’s claims in danger of being rejected outright, de-legitimising their claim, and perhaps even creating the de facto precedent that an international body with standing among the parties, such as is the ECHR, treated the Russian control of Crimea as a legal (or, perhaps, ‘not illegal’) phenomenon.

October 03, 2019
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative about alleged recognition of Crimea by international actors. See earlier disinformation cases on Russia's relationship with international organisations alleging that the Council of Europe will die without Russia's membership, and that the Council of Europe is Russophobic and that the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights are anti-Russian.