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Disinfo: The US is creating conditions for a nuclear conflict

Summary

The US views a nuclear conflict as a feasible political option and is creating the conditions for it to happen. Washington is not only modernising its nuclear arsenal but is significantly increasing the probability that its nuclear weapons will be used. Particularly concerning is the US’s increasing deployment of low-yield nuclear weapons, which will lower the threshold for their use.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that US and NATO policies are bringing the world closer to nuclear war, and that the US is deliberately lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons and intentionally increasing the risk of nuclear conflict. Closely related disinformation narratives claim that the US nuclear weapons doctrine adopted in 2018 is “sheer lunacy” and that the new US nuclear strategy is based on the principle of a “nuclear first strike” and has abandoned the principle of deterrence No evidence is provided that the US considers nuclear war a “feasible political option”, that it is lowering the threshold for nuclear weapons use, or that it is “creating the conditions” for a nuclear conflict to take place. The current US nuclear strategy is detailed in the Nuclear Posture Review [NPR], issued by the Department of Defence in February 2018. This states that the US would consider the use of nuclear weapons only under “extreme circumstances” to defend the vital interests of the US, its allies and partners. It defines “extreme circumstances,” as both nuclear attacks and “significant non-nuclear strategic attacks” against “U.S., allied or partner civilian populations or infrastructure, and attacks on U.S. or allied nuclear forces, their command and control, or warning and attack assessment capabilities”. The NPR also stresses that deterrence continues to be the central principle of US strategy: it states that “the highest US nuclear policy and strategy priority is to deter potential adversaries from nuclear attack of any scale”, and that US nuclear forces play a critical role in “deterring nuclear and non-nuclear attack”. Read a previous case claiming that NATO no longer considers the use of nuclear weapons as an extreme measure.

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publication/media

Sputnik Italia (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 189
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 06/03/2020
  • Language/target audience: Italian
  • Country: Russia, US
  • Keywords: Nuclear issues, Missile defence system, NATO

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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The MH17 trial: not objective; not professional

The outcome of the criminal MH17 trial, that has just started in the Netherlands, is quite likely predetermined. It is based on the conclusions of the Joint Investigation Team, whose operation has raised a lot of questions through the years. […] Will this trial be just? According to the experts, one can not consider the investigation objective or professional, based on the methods and quality of work done by the JIT. For example, Russia was not allowed to be a part of the investigation group. Ukraine was included and had all opportunities to influence the course of the investigation. […] The JIT has built all of its conclusions by ineptly combining dubious data from the social networks

March 10, 2020
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the MH17, an attempt to discredit the Joint International Investigation and a criminal trial that has started in the Hague. A special team, known as the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), was established to conduct the criminal investigation into the downing of the flight MH17. The JIT comprises officials from the Dutch Public Prosecution Service and the Dutch police, along with police and criminal justice authorities from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine. After years of painstaking investigation, the JIT has concluded that flight MH17 was shot down on 17 July 2014 by a missile of the 9M38 series, launched by a BUK-TELAR, from farmland in the vicinity of Pervomaiskiy (or: Pervomaiskyi). At that time, the area was controlled by pro-Russian fighters. The BUK-TELAR was brought in from the territory of the Russian Federation and subsequently, after having shot down flight MH17, was taken back to the Russian Federation. The Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT), has concluded that the BUK-TELAR used to down MH17, originates from the 53rd Anti Aircraft Missile brigade, a unit of the Russian army from Kursk in the Russian Federation. On the basis of the investigation conducted by the JIT the Dutch Public Persecution service is persecuting Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, Sergey Nikolayevich Dubinskiy, Oleg Yuldashevich Pulatov, and Leonid Volodymyrovych Kharchenko for causing the crash of the MH17 and murdering the 298 persons on board. The first session of the court proceedings has started on the 9th of March in the Hague. The European Union and NATO have called on the Russian Federation to accept its responsibility and to fully cooperate with all efforts to establish accountability. On the basis of the JIT’s conclusions, the Netherlands and Australia are convinced that Russia is responsible for the deployment of the Buk installation that was used to down MH17. The two governments are formally holding Russia accountable.

The trial in The Hague on flight MH17 is based on Ukraine’s fakes

Suspicions problems, the ADS-B receiver, weird fragments of the missile that allegedly caused the tragedy, and strange death of the Ukrainian pilot Vladislav Voloshin (who was probably murdered to hide the truth) prove that the investigation was not done properly. The trial in The Hague on flight MH17 is based on Ukraine’s fakes.

March 10, 2020
Disproof
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative aiming to discredit the International Joint Investigation (JIT) into the downing of flight MH17. The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) - which is comprised of the Dutch Public Prosecution Service officials and the Dutch police, along with police and criminal justice authorities from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine - has concluded that flight MH17 was shot down on 17 July 2014 by a missile of the 9M38 series, launched by a BUK-TELAR, from farmland in the vicinity of Pervomaiskiy. At that time, the area was controlled by pro-Russian fighters. The BUK-TELAR was brought in from the territory of the Russian Federation and subsequently, after having shot down flight MH17, was taken back to the Russian Federation. The Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has concluded that the BUK-TELAR used to down MH17 originates from the 53rd Anti Aircraft Missile brigade, a unit of the Russian army from Kursk in the Russian Federation. On the basis of the investigation conducted by the JIT, the Dutch Public Persecution service will persecute Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, Sergey Nikolayevich Dubinskiy, Oleg Yuldashevich Pulatov, and Leonid Volodymyrovych Kharchenko for causing the crash of MH17 and murdering the 298 persons on board. The public hearing is scheduled for 9 March 2020 in the Netherlands. The European Union and NATO have called on the Russian Federation to accept its responsibility and to fully cooperate with all efforts to establish accountability. On the basis of the JIT’s conclusions, the Netherlands and Australia are convinced that Russia is responsible for the deployment of the BUK installation that was used to down MH17. The two governments are formally holding Russia accountable. Read other disinformation narratives alleging that The Netherlands is going to sabotage the MH17 trial, The MH17 trial will be a show process, and that There was no BUK, MH17 crashed because of an explosion on board.