Disinfo: Blaming Russian hackers is Macron's favourite excuse for his country's problems

Summary

[Blaming] Russian hackers is Macron’s favourite excuse for the country’s problems. He says they tried to hack his elections, Russian trolls spoiled his reputation, Russian bots were convincing yellow vests to protest. French special services looked for Russian trace all over, and found nothing. But that did not even matter.

Disproof

There have been several reports about the role of social media accounts connected to Russia in amplifying the yellow vests protests. The investigation, as announced by French authorities, started on December 8 and is ongoing. No evidence given for the alleged French conclusions. There has been evidence of Kremlin behind hacking French elections. Pro-Kremlin outlets often try to convince the audience that some claims are only made to distract us from the real problems. This is applied in this case, and we have also seen it, for example, in the Skripal poisoning case.

publication/media

  • Reported in: Issue 140
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 10/03/2019
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: France, Russia
  • Keywords: yellow vests, election meddling, Emmanuel Macron
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Disinfo: A cultural occupation is taking place in Ukraine under Petro Poroshenko's presidency

A cultural occupation is taking place in Ukraine under Petro Poroshenko’s presidency. This involves an extermination of the Russian language, its prohibition in all educational and state institutions as well as the forced “Ukrainisation” of the Russian-speaking population.

Disproof

Conspiracy theory, repeating Pro-Kremlin narrative about a discrimination of the Russian language in Ukraine.

The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe sees no discrimination of the Russian language in Ukraine. In fact, the Venice Commission does not mention “facts of gross discrimination” in Ukraine.

Disinfo: Extreme nationalists staged coup and brought Poroshenko to power in Ukraine

Extreme nationalists were the driving force in the 2014 coup that brought Poroshenko to power in Ukraine.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative painting the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests as a far-right uprising which culminated in a coup against the democratically elected President Yanukovych. It fits the wider portrayal of Ukrainian politics as dominated by "fascists." Radical nationalists played a very limited role throughout the Euromaidan, had not initiated the protests in the first place, and did not install the Poroshenko to power. Petro Poroshenko won the presidency in a competitive and transparent election, as reported by the OSCE. The two most popular nationalist candidates won a combined 1.84% of the national vote, and their respective political parties failed to achieve the minimum electoral threshold in the October 2014 parliamentary race.

Disinfo: The EU was invented in the Third Reich and created by US agents

One of the EU founders (Walter Hallstein) was a “star of jurisprudence” in the Third Reich, who developed the legal foundations of a unified Hitlerian Europe; other two EU founders (Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet) were paid agents and puppets of the US State Department. The main goal was to prevent the union of France and Germany and make Europe fully submissive to the United States. The US State Department is also the cause of all current problems of the EU – erosion of national identities, renouncement of the Christian heritage, destructive tolerance for migrants.

Disproof

Conspiracy theory based on recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about EU being a Nazi project or under US control. To learn more about the EU pioneers click here.