Disinfo: The return of Crimea caused Western hostility against Russia

Summary

Relations between Russia and Western countries, including the United States, have deteriorated due to the Ukrainian crisis, the return of Crimea to Russia in March 2014, and sanctions against Russia. For its part, Moscow is seeking to confront this hostile Western approach and to restore normal relations with the West.

Disproof

This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the illegal annexation of Crimea.

Western countries are not hostile to Russia but are responding to the violation of international law caused by the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Crimea was illegally annexed by Moscow based on an illegitimate referendum. On 27 March 2014, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in which it stated that the referendum in Crimea was not valid and could not serve as a basis for any change in the status of the peninsula. On 17th December 2018, the UN General Assembly confirmed its non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea.

According to international law, Crimea is a part of Ukraine. Russia violated international law as well as key principles of the European security framework by illegally annexing the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol in 2014.

The EU's policy of non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol includes a set of restrictive measures against entities and individuals responsible for actions against Ukraine's territorial integrity. In March 2019, on the fifth anniversary of Crimea's annexation, the EU reiterated its position of non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol. The EU continues to stand in full solidarity with Ukraine, supporting its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

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  • Reported in: Issue 200
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 25/05/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Arabic
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: EU, US, Ukraine, Russia
  • Keywords: illegal annexation, West, Crimea, Russophobia
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Disinfo: US creates ethnic weapons against Russians and Slavs in its biolabs

The main goal of the US [biological laboratories] is to surround Russia not only with troops but also with bio laboratories, which, in the event of a possible military threat, will make it possible to deliver a swift strike with the most unpredictable and deadly biological weapons. As we know, a new virus can spread very quickly and its effects on humans scare even experienced doctors. At the same time, the Americans may be creating not just biological weapons, but ethnic weapons aimed exclusively at the extermination of Russians and the entire Slavic ethnic group.

May 24, 2020
Disproof

This is a recurring conspiracy theory alleging, without evidence, that the United States develops biological weapons and has secret biological laboratories around the world. The disinformation claim also capitalises on the oft-recurring conspiracy theory about the Lugar Lab in Georgia, as well as laboratories in Ukraine, all of them encircling Russia. According to this and similar claims, the main task of these labs is to create "combat" viruses against Russians. In fact, virology laboratories in Ukraine are involved in preventing the risks of complex diseases by pathogens and, together with other similar projects, counteracting bioterrorism. Meanwhile, the US Embassy in Georgia officially addressed the conspiracy theories behind the Richard Lugar Centre as "nonsense and typical of Russian misinformation and propaganda campaigns." The Richard Lugar Centre for Public Health Research is a facility of the National Centre for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC), which became operational in August 2013. It is a top-tiered institution in NCDC’s laboratory network and serves as a reference laboratory for Georgia’s public health system. Read more about the disinformation campaign surrounding the Lugar Laboratory on Myth Detector. See similar disinformation cases claiming that the Pentagon creates biological laboratories around the world to develop "combat" viruses, that US prepares biological weapons against Russia, that Ukraine became a testing site for developing biological weapons and that US laboratories in Ukraine are deadly.

Disinfo: Joe Biden was personally profiteering in Ukraine

Joe Biden was personally profiteering in Ukraine. Not only his son, Hunter Biden, who has fictitiously worked for Burisma company in Ukraine receiving enormous amounts of money for nothing, but also Biden himself [got] a million dollars for his family for consultations. The purpose of this consultation was actually to pressure then-president Poroshenko so that he would fire the prosecutor-general Victor Shokin, who was investigating the corruption of the Biden family – the father Joe and son Hunter, who were unlawfully helping themselves in Ukraine. For the firing of inconvenient Shokin, the US vice president promised Poroshenko one billion dollars which could be used by Poroshenko’s companies that received military contracts. […] It is a story of international corruption and high treason.

May 24, 2020
Disproof

This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Joe Biden and Hunter Biden. The disinformation message appeared after the leak of the audio tapes containing edited fragments of a conversation between former US Vice President Joe Biden and former president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. There is no basis for the claims that Joe Biden personally profited in Ukraine. As a former US vice president, he was responsible for US policy towards Ukraine. Extensive journalistic investigations by multiple international media outlets reveal that Ukraine faced broad international and domestic pressure to advance anti-corruption reforms and that Ukraine's international partners were concerned about Ukraine's prosecutor-general at the time, who was reputed to not follow up on corruption issues. See relevant reporting by the Financial Times, RFERL, and Washington Post among others. In 2018, Joe Biden himself publicly spoke about conversations with President Poroshenko regarding Ukraine's prosecutor-general. The mentioned sum of one billion dollars was not a personal payment, but rather the amount of US loan guarantees to Ukraine. There is no evidence to support the claims that international corruption or high treason occurred in this case. Hunter Biden served on the board of one of the largest natural gas companies in Ukraine. Hostility towards the Biden family has been a consistent feature of pro-Kremlin disinformation. See other examples, such as false allegations of Hunter's "dubious" business in Kyiv, Joe Biden's vow to prevent Vladimir Putin's reelection, his rule over Ukraine, and his intimate involvement in the war in Donbas and in Georgian unrest.

Disinfo: Bloomberg fakes Putin's approval numbers

The US news agency Bloomberg has reported, citing figures by the Russian state pollster VTsIOM, that Putin’s rating dropped to a record low of 27 percent in April as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh on the national economy. The Russian Foreign Ministry slammed the report, showing that the real figures provided by VTsIOM (67-8%), which Bloomberg claimed to cite, were altered in the report. “The editors of Bloomberg continue to show complete disrespect for its readers. They probably hope that their audience will not check Russian sources and find a real WCIOM data”, the Russian Embassy in the United States said on Twitter.

May 24, 2020
Disproof

The story advances a recurring pro-Kremlin narrative which casts Western media as biased against Russia. Under this narrative, outlets such as Bloomberg will not hesitate to report bogus statistics for the sake of impressing their Russophobic prejudices on unsuspecting readers. VTsIOM's statistics on public trust in politicians are based on two different survey questions, which in turn produce two different percentages. The first question is closed-ended: "Do you trust or not trust... [name of public official]"? Based on this, Putin's approval rating stands at 67.9% as of 17 May 2020. The second question is open-ended and allows multiple answers: "When it comes to politicians, whom do you trust, and whom would you not entrust with solving important state issues?" In this case, Putin's approval comes to 27% as of April 2020. The Bloomberg article correctly cites the second figure (27%) and correctly bills it as an "historic low," given that Putin's approval is now at its lowest since 2006. Meanwhile, the Russian Embassy in the US countered Bloomberg's reporting by citing the first figure (~67%), implying that this is the only relevant statistic produced by VTsIOM.