Disinfo: The Council of Europe is silent about discrimination against Russian speakers in neighbouring countries

Summary

The Council of Europe is silent regarding discrimination against Russian people and Russian-speaking people in Ukraine and the three Baltic countries.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation message about the violation of human rights and freedom of speech in Ukraine and the Baltic states. The claim was neither counterbalanced nor critically challenged in the article.

The claim that Ukraine and the Baltic states are discriminating against the Russian language and Russian-speakers is false.

The Council of Europe is not indifferent to discrimination against ethnic minorities in Europe. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), the human rights monitoring body under the Council of Europe monitors the situation and issues recommendations to the member states, including Russia. For example, in 2014, the ECRI expressed grave concern at serious allegations of intimidation and discrimination against Ukrainian speakers and Tatars in the Crimean region of Ukraine, under the de facto control of the Russian Federation.

Furthermore, Ukraine and Baltic states are signatories to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. As enshrined in the Convention, people in Ukraine and the Baltic states have the right:

"to use freely and without interference his or her minority language, in private and in public, orally and in writing".

See similar cases alleging that the Council of Europe is indifferent to discrimination of Russian-speaking people in Ukraine and the Baltic states, that the Baltic states, Ukraine and Poland revise history for political revenge against Russia, or that Ukrainisation is about political terror and Russophobia in Ukraine.

publication/media

  • Reported in: Issue 236
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 28/02/2021
  • Article language(s) Arabic
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Baltic states, Ukraine
  • Keywords: Russian language, Baltic states, Council of Europe
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Disinfo: The US promotes and supports colour revolutions that turn into armed revolutions

The US promotes and supports local wars and coloured revolutions that turn into armed revolutions. The coloured revolution in Belarus is about to turn into an armed revolution.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that the Belarus protests are a “colour revolution” organised, funded and controlled by the US and other Western states.

The article’s message is consistent with the broad pro-Kremlin narrative that depicts colour revolutions as attempts by the West to overthrow unwelcome regimes in post-Soviet states and other regions. This narrative claims that protests, disorders and civil uprisings are never manifestations of popular discontent, but are colour revolutions directed and funded by Western intelligence services or other Western actors in order to destabilise targeted foreign states and bring about regime change.

Disinfo: US deliberately provoked Russia into invading Ukraine to impose sanctions

Ukraine is a political, diplomatic and financial burden on the United States. Washington is trying to hang this burden on Moscow. The US wanted Russia to occupy Ukraine in 2014, pay its debts, keep this 40-million-strong country, restore its infrastructure and suffer from sanctions after that.

Disproof

This is a weird, albeit recurring propagandist narrative from pro-Kremlin media, claiming that the West deliberately incited Ukrainians to topple president Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 with a view to engineer clashed and drag Russia into a conflict which would trigger sanctions.

This is conspiracy speculation in a more extreme form. A quick reality check of (firstly) the Russian government's efforts to keep Yanukovych in power back in 2014 before he fled to Russia in February 2014 , and (secondly) the US and EUs strong financial and political support since 2014 - should do away with the speculation.

Disinfo: Europe and the United States destroy states and nations in pursuit of globalist interests

Europe and the United States, which are subservient to the globalist machine, destroy States and Nations as much as possible in pursuit of globalist interests disguised as sectors of the US government and agencies of the European Union.

Disproof

This is a recurring pro-Kremlin narrative that seeks to discredit western liberal-democratic societies by claiming that“globalism” and/or global elites rob nations of their sovereignty and identity, and seek to establish a “world government”.The term “globalist machine”, used in the article, suggests that there is a “Shadow World Government”, an idea that in itself is also a recurring pro-Kremlin narrative.

It is not true that the US, the EU, “global élites” or the globalisation process“destroy nations and states”. Marked economy and economic globalisation increase economic interdependence among nations but do not engender the loss of national sovereignty nor do they lead to the destruction of nation-states and the creation of a “world government”. The role of the nation-state has actually increased in recent years and this trend has become more pronounced in times of the COVID-19 pandemic.