Disinfo: The Russian army doesn't deliberately target civilians, unlike the US

Summary

Despite having lost soldiers in Syria and the fact that Turkey downed a Russian airplane and caused the death of its pilot, Russia didn’t take any inappropriate retaliation measures. It didn’t kill civilians on purpose, as it is known that the US did.

Disproof

Deliberate targeting of civilians by the Russian air forces has been a permanent concern for human rights groups and observers of the Syrian conflict since the beginning of its intervention in the country in 2015. Both Syrian and especially Russian armed forces have been repeatedly accused of purposefully attacking schools, rescue workers and hospitals by Amnesty International, Western governments or the United Nations in different moments of the war. Bombing of hospitals in Syria have been a recurrent event during the armed conflict, which MSF attributed to Russia in 2017. Moscow flatly denied any responsibility, trying to shift blame on the US air forces without presenting any evidence. In June 2019, doctors in the rebel-held area of Idlib stopped sharing coordinates of medical facilities with the UN after suspicions that they were being deliberately targeted by pro-Bashar Al Assad and Russian forces in what many observers considered a coordinated strategy. On October 13, 2019, The New York Times published an article analysing radio recordings linking Russian pilots to the purposeful bombing of four Syrian hospitals in May 5 and 6, 2019.

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mundo.sputniknews.com (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 171
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 17/10/2019
  • Outlet language(s) Spanish
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Syria, Russia
  • Keywords: Russia's Ministry of Defence, Syrian War
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Disinfo: New developments in the Skripal case reveal it for the sham it always was

As more information became available, the United Kingdom government’s version became less and less plausible. In fact, many of the allegations made by the United Kingdom government were downright absurd. It is sufficient to note here that the alleged agent used to protect the Skripals was a highly toxic substance where only minute quantities are required to cause an almost instant death. The Skripals were said to be infected at Sergei’s home. There has never been a satisfactory explanation of how the pair were infected, yet managed to survive several hours, during which time they travelled, fed ducks in the park, ate a meal, and walked through the city centre. The official version was beyond absurd.

Oct 16, 2019
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the Skripal poisoning claiming that the United Kingdom was never able to prove a “Russian trace” and did not provide detailed evidence of Russia’s involvement. British police and investigations from the intelligence services have produced hard forensic evidence which was sufficient to charge two Russian nationals, identified as officers of the Russian Military Intelligence, GRU, for the attack on the Skripals. Links on the details of the London Metropolitan Police investigation into the Skripal case can be found here.

Disinfo: Crimea returned to Russia after a popular referendum

The Republic of Crimea returned to Russia after a popular referendum was held on the peninsula in March 2014, against the backdrop of a severe political crisis that led to a change of power in Ukraine.

Oct 16, 2019
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative on the annexation of Crimea claiming that Crimean citizens chose to join Russia through a legal referendum.

The Crimea did not "return" to Russia but was illegally annexed by it. Following the covert invasion by “little green men”, the referendum in Crimea was conducted hastily and at gunpoint, barring impartial observers from entering the peninsula. Therefore, no international body recognises the so-called referendum, announced on the 27th of February 2014, and held on 16th of March 2014.

Disinfo: Sweden caught a buoy instead of a Russian sub

A final report has been published in Sweden on the extraordinary military operation in 2014, when an unsuccessful search for an alleged “Russian mini-submarine” took place. Swedish media reports that the document concludes that a “coded signal”, detected by the Swedish Navy, as a suspected signal from the mini-submarine, in fact emerged from a malfunctioning meteorological buoy.

Oct 16, 2019
Disproof

The Swedish Armed Forces detected a suspected violation of Sweden's Internal territorial waters in October 2014. A report of the incident was published in 2015, concluding that there was, beyond reasonable doubt, proof that Swedish internal territorial waters were violated. The report concludes that the combined evaluation of reports provide a very high level of confidence. They signal from the above mentioned buoy had, at the time of the report, been excluded from the analysis of the collected data. The press release (in Swedish) on the report can be found here. Here is a translation of key parts of the press release:

Of the roughly 300 reports that came in approximately 150 has been analysed in further detail of which 21 were judged to be particularly interesting. Following the analysis several of these have now received a higher classification compared to the earlier analysis. The combined evaluation based on the amount of observations in the area provide a very high level of confidence. The observation that last autumn was judged to be of the highest level of confidence has been reevaluated. Here additional information have come to light that give this particular observation another explanation, and as such it is not included in the basis for the combined evaluation. Despite this the conclusion remain that through the analysis work it is concluded beyond reasonable doubt that the Swedish internal waters have been violated.

The Swedish Armed Forces does not attribute the violation to any nation.