Disinfo: The European Commission accuses Ukraine of flooding the EU with heroin

Summary

The European Commission has published a document in which it accuses Ukraine of flooding the EU with heroin.

Disproof

Zvezda TV, owned by Russia’s Ministry of Defence, is well known to spread disinformation https://euvsdisinfo.eu/dependent-media-russias-military-tv-zvezda/. The document in question is the European Commission’s first report to the European Parliament and the EU Council on EU visa liberalization pertaining to the Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership countries ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/what-is-new/news/20171220_first_report_under_suspension_mechanism_en.pdf, . The report concerns three former Soviet republics, Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine, all of whom have a visa free arrangement with the European Union. As regards Ukraine, the report states that Ukraine is “a transit country for various illicit commodities trafficked to the EU”. Nowhere in the report is Ukraine accused of flooding EU countries with heroin nor does the report allege that crime has increased since Ukraine entered into a visa free regime with the EU.

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tvzvezda.ru
  • Reported in: Issue 93
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 21/12/2017
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Ukraine
  • Keywords: European Commission, Drugs, European Union, Europe
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Disinfo: UN are fabricating human rights violations in Crimea

Ukrainians living in Crimea accuse the United Nations of making up human rights violations on the peninsula. This claim was in response to a UN resolution adopted on November 19 condemning human rights violations in Crimea which refers to Russia as the “occupying power”. The resolution is based on myths as there are no human rights violations taking place in Crimea. According to Anastasia Gridchina, the president of the Ukrainian Community in Crimea, the “UN has never visited Crimea, has not spoken to Ukrainians or Crimean Tatars about life there and is inventing myths and stories about non-existent persecution”.

Dec 20, 2017
Disproof

First of all, the Ukrainian Community in Crimea is a Kremlin controlled organization, headed by members of Russia’s ruling party United Russia. The organization was established in 2016, two years after Russia annexed Crimea and its purpose is to showcase a positive life for Ukrainians on the occupied peninsula. Gridchina’s accusation that the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission did not visit Crimea is telling as the UN resolution condemns Russia for failing to provide access to Crimea for the Mission, despite the Mission’s mandate calling for such access. Claims that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights did not speak with Crimean Tatars and victims of human rights violations are untrue. According to Fiona Fraser, the head of the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, data was collected through personal interviews and monitoring of court proceedings and trials in Crimea. Presenting the Mission’s report in Kyiv on December 12, Fraser outlined concrete examples of human rights violations against Crimean Tatars, indiscriminate arrests, detentions, torture, ill-treatment and restrictions on freedom of assembly and expression. Only in November of this year, the UN recorded 49 arrests of Crimean Tatars for holding individual peaceful protests, 10 unlawful searches and 18 raids of Crimean Tatars’ homes. Further debunking by Stopfake www.stopfake.org/en/fake-un-fabricating-human-rights-violations-in-crimea/, .

Disinfo: France is banning Christmas symbols

France is banning Christmas symbols. It has announced to set up a counter-terror prosecutor’s office, but actually France is not fighting with terrorists and jihadists but with its own Christian past. No one says it out loud that all this is done to please the liberals and their “best friends” – radical islamists.

Dec 20, 2017
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation. In France religious symbols are prohibited from public institutions as an application of the principle of the separation of church and state. For background on the legislation, that also bans Muslim headscarves and Jewish skullcaps, read more here. Further debunking by the Insider.

Disinfo: US Ambassador urged Moldovan Parliament to pass the law against "Russian propaganda"

The US Ambassador to Moldova, James Pettit, demanded that the Parliament prohibit the broadcasting of Russian TV channels. He expressed the hope that this is “a step in the fight against disinformation”.

Dec 19, 2017
Disproof

In fact, the US ambassador did not speak about the law passed by the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova on December 7, 2017. He just called for a new Code of Television and Radio, which would fully comply with the EU standards, both with regard to foreign propaganda and internal propaganda. According the fact-checking by API, he stated that foreign propaganda is a problem in Moldova, and the United States understand the risks of Russian disinformation. But, he continued, Moldova also faces a problem of internal control over the media. This situation does not only threaten the independence of the media in Moldova, but also generates news that can be characterised as different forms of propaganda from internal sources, the ambassador said.