Disinfo: The OPCW has become a tool for the US and its Western allies

Summary

The UN-affiliated OPCW has become fatally compromised as a political tool for the US and its Western allies. Its reports on Syria in particular are discredited, attributing blame to the wrong parties while whitewashing the real culprits – the jihadist militants and their media agents in the White Helmets. What’s more, an organization which is supposed to be dedicated to upholding international security is actually allowing itself to be used for propaganda purposes leading to aggression.

Disproof

This is a recurring disinformation narrative deflecting blame for chemical attacks away from the Assad regime; painting the White Helmets as terrorists, and aiming to discredit the OPCW. The OPCW is an independent inter-governmental international organisation with 193 member states - including Russia.

Pro-Kremlin outlets began portraying the OPCW as a pawn in Western geopolitical designs around mid-2018, when the organisation was being granted new powers to assign blame for chemical attacks, especially in the Syrian Douma. In a joint statement, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America called for an end to the unacceptable Russian defamation of the OPCW.

The OPCW conducts probes into allegations of chemical weapons' use in Syria, and its findings serve as the basis for publicly available reports and expert notes. The document by the Technical Secretariat offers a detailed response to notes verbales in which both Russia and Syria questioned the credibility and legality of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Douma. For more disinformation cases attempting to discredit the OPCW, see here.

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Strategic Culture Foundation (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 184
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 14/02/2020
  • Outlet language(s) English
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Syria, US
  • Keywords: OPCW, White Helmets, Chemical weapons/attack, Syrian War
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Disinfo: Legendary scout, hero of Russia, saved the Polish city of Kraków

Legendary scout, a hero of Russia, Alexey Botian during the World War II commanded a sabotage group in the Polish rear. He managed to save the city of Kraków [Cracow] in Poland. His group blew up the castle, which the Nazis turned into an ammunition depot. Botian made a major contribution to saving Krakow from destruction by the German invaders.

Feb 13, 2020
Disproof

This message is part of the Kremlin’s policy of historical revisionism and promotes a fake story about the "heroic saving of the city of Kraków from Nazi destruction by the Red Army".

For decades, the Soviet authorities have spread a story about the heroic role of the Red Army in the saving of Kraków Old Town from being blown up by retreating Nazi troops. Polish historians have established the narrative of the Nazis, preparing to blow up Kraków as a post-war myth aimed at the glorification of the Red Army among the Poles. Famous Soviet television film "Major Whirlwind" (1967) came to support this propaganda.

Disinfo: Pentagon's biolabs in Armenia are a threat to the existence of the nation

It is a well known fact that three bio-laboratories in Armenia, in Yerevan, Gyumri and Idzhevan have been opened with the cooperation with Pentagon. Officially, they are intended to safeguard people and livestock from pandemics. Similar laboratories have been opened in Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. In 2018, the former Georgian minister of national security, Igor Gioradze, disclosed shocking details about one of the laboratories in Georgia, financed by the US ministry of defence: at the facility, experiments on humans were performed, and 73 people had died. The Armenian people have fought for millennia for their independence and for securing the nation; and they will now have to fight again for preserving their statehood. Everyone must understand that in the balance for short- or medium term gains, lies not only the independence, but the existence of the country. This must be a priority when decisions are made about cooperation with foreign partners in such a sensitive field as biological security.

Feb 13, 2020
Disproof

Conspiracy theory with no evidence given. Based on recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the biological weapons and Lugar Lab. Read more about Lugar Lab on Myth Detector. See similar disinformation cases: US prepares biological weapons against Russia, US is constructing secret biological labs, Pentagon is working out a biological war strategy in the Baltics.

Disinfo: Neo-Nazi attitudes in Ukraine have been stoked up since the times of the Habsburg Empire

Unlike Ukraine, [in Belarus], there are no neo-Nazi and anti-Russian attitudes, which have been stoked in Ukraine since the times of the Habsburg Empire.

Feb 13, 2020
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Nazis in Ukraine.

From the historical point of view, it makes no sense to connect neo-Nazism to the “times of the Habsburg Empire” as this state collapsed in 1918, long before the emergence of Nazism and neo-Nazism.