Disinfo: European Parliament resolution is pure madness

Summary

The recent European Parliament resolution which equates Communism and Nazism and claims that the Soviet Union was also responsible for the outbreak of World War II is pure madness. Countries in Europe and North America are attempting to subvert historical facts and to distort the course of events that lead to the Second World War.

Disproof

Recurring disinformation narrative that attempts to portray Russia's role in World War II as non-aggressive and to revise the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, reflecting the Kremlin’s policy of historical revisionism. This article also contains the recurring pro-Kremlin narrative claiming that the recognition and denunciation of Stalinist crimes against humanity are Western anti-Russian propaganda. The European Parliament resolution on the importance of European remembrance for the future of Europe states that “the Second World War, the most devastating war in Europe’s history, was started as an immediate result of the notorious Nazi-Soviet Treaty on Non-Aggression of 23 August 1939, also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and its secret protocols, whereby two totalitarian regimes that shared the goal of world conquest divided Europe into two zones of influence”. In fact, the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact enabled the German and, two weeks later, Soviet military aggression against Poland in September 1939, which resulted in complete occupation of the country by Germany and the USSR. The Treaty enabled the USSR to invade and annex the Baltic States. The Soviets also annexed Romania's provinces of Bessarabia (today's Moldova) and northern Bukovina (now in Ukraine) and the Czechoslovakian territory of Carpathian Ruthenia (now also part of Ukraine). Throughout the territories it occupied, the Soviet Union carried out harsh political reprisals, including mass executions and deportations The European Parliament's resolution recalls that Nazi and Stalinist regimes carried out mass murder, genocide and deportation and caused a loss of life and freedom in the 20th century on a scale unseen in human history. It stresses that Russia remains the greatest victim of communist totalitarianism. The resolution argues that both Nazism and Stalinism were totalitarian regimes. The concept of totalitarianism, which highlights the profound similarities between Nazism and Communism, is not an ideological weapon. The concept of totalitarianism is very widely accepted among contemporary political scientists and historians, including Russian scholars. Please see similar disinformation cases claiming that the European Parliament resolution distorts the history of World War II and that it is an ideological weapon against Russia.

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it.sputniknews.com (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 178
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 24/12/2019
  • Outlet language(s) Italian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: USSR, Russia
  • Keywords: Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Historical revisionism, Protest, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin
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Disproof

No evidence given except anonymous sources. Several Telegram channels started spreading this information referring only to some inside sources. The SSU Office in the Transcarpathian region stated that some sources were disseminating inaccurate information about the “disappearance of a group of SBU employees. This is not true. We urge everyone not to disseminate fake information”, the department said. After the news of the alleged murders appeared, SSU spokeswoman Olena Gitlyanska noted that the story was “complete nonsense”. The editor-in-chief of the site “Censor.net” Yuriy Butusov also noted that he specifically checked this story with a number of SSU employees in Kyiv and Transcarpathia and confirmed that it is fake.

Disinfo: Al Qaeda was created to destroy Russians and Serbs

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Dec 23, 2019
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A recurring disinformation narrative that denies war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed in the 1990s and confirmed by the rulings of the international courts ICJ and ICTY. Večernje Novosti published an article about alleged material published by the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service, which, according to this newspaper, disputes "official versions of the circumstances under which the war in the former Yugoslavia took place. "Večernje Novosti reported that those "intelligence documents" were published by the Swiss portal "Swiss Propaganda Research," referring to the "secret report of the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (FIS)." In reality the "Swiss Intelligence Service Documents" does not exist. Raskrikavanje.rs, a fact-checking website from Serbia, found that the Swiss Propaganda Research portal did not refer to any source, not even a "Swiss intelligence secret document". (See here)

Disinfo: The CIA has sent the truth about the war in Yugoslavia to the Swiss

The Swiss Federal Intelligence Service has released a document stating that the US used the same paramilitary forces in the war in the former Yugoslavia as in the previous war on the USSR in Afghanistan, which would later get the name of al-Qaeda. Information throwing new light from the West on Serbs in the war could have been sent to the Swiss by the CIA. The documents, among other things, recall the case of the massacre at the Markale Market in Sarajevo, which the Bosnian Serb forces were accused of, while later, as in some subsequent cases, UN mission officials concluded that the crime most likely was conducted by Bosnian military forces against their own population. The list of propaganda examples that the media created a framework for the war in Yugoslavia and which deeply influenced public opinion about the nature and character of the conflict is also cited. Such examples include “the Serbian death camp of Trnopolje”, “Markale”, as well as Srebrenica, which is said to be “the saddest highlight of the war in Bosnia”.

Dec 23, 2019
Disproof

Conspiracy theory. For similar cases, see here. The "Swiss Intelligence Service Documents" cited by Sputnik as a source do not exist. Sputnik states that "intelligence documents" were published by the Swiss portal "Swiss Propaganda Research," referring to the "secret report of the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (FIS)." Raskrikavanje.rs, a fact-checking website from Serbia, found that the Swiss Propaganda Research portal did not refer to any source, not even a "Swiss intelligence secret document" as Sputnik states.