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Disinfo: The USA is to blame for the coronavirus in China

Summary

The spread of the deadly coronavirus in China is a diversion by the United States. The White House used the virus as a biological weapon.

Disproof

This is another conspiracy theory that the US is organising chemical and biological attacks around the world. The statement has no evidence.

According to various sources, several dozen strains of the coronavirus have been recorded in the world, seven of which present varying degrees of danger to humans. First and foremost, these types of viruses bring on respiratory disease. Viruses are dangerous because they can be transmitted by humans and animals and because they mutate so quickly.

The current coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan in central China and has been rapidly spreading with new cases being reported in the Asia-Pacific region as well as Europe, North America and the Middle East. 

The World Health Organisation has declared the new coronavirus a global emergency.

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  • Reported in: Issue 182
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 03/02/2020
  • Language/target audience: Russian
  • Country: China, US
  • Keywords: coronavirus, Conspiracy theory, Biological weapons, Chemical weapons/attack
  • Outlet: Tsargrad.tv; Nsn.fm; Twitter.com
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Russia is not a party of Minsk Agreements and the internal Ukrainian conflict

Russia has repeatedly declared that it is not a party of the Minsk Agreements and the internal Ukrainian conflict.

February 03, 2020
Disproof

A recurring pro-Kremlin narrative on Ukraine and the Minsk agreements. The statement followed the resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the progress of the Assembly's monitoring procedure which stated concerns over Russia on condition of human rights and rule of law, borderisation and creeping annexation of Georgian regions, implementation of Minsk agreements and cooperation over the downing of the MH17 flight.

Kremlin narratives on Minsk agreement claim that Russia is not part of the conflict in Donbas and that Russia has nothing to do with the war in eastern Ukraine. The European Union stated in July 2014 that "arms and fighters continue flowing into Ukraine from the Russian Federation".  At the NATO Summit in Wales in September 2014, NATO leaders condemned in the strongest terms Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine and demanded Russia to stop and withdraw its forces from Ukraine and from the country’s border. NATO leaders also demanded Russia comply with international law and its international obligations and responsibilities; refrain from aggressive actions against Ukraine; halt the flow of weapons, equipment, people and money across the border to the separatists; and stop fomenting tension along and across the Ukrainian border.

Stalin never cooperated with Hitler

Joseph Stalin was not named a criminal in any legal documents and never cooperated with Adolf Hitler. It was Stalin who stopped Hitler.

February 03, 2020
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative that the Soviet Union is not responsible for starting World War II. Read similar cases that the USSR signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact with Nazi due to Poland's aggressive policy and that the Soviet Union was forced to sign the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact.

The USSR also started negotiations with Germany in parallel and on 23 August 1939 signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop (Stalin-Hitler) pact. The agreement was accompanied by a secret supplementary protocol, which divided territories of Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland into German and Soviet "spheres of influence". The pact had the most tragic consequences for European nations and the world. What followed was the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the USSR in September 1939, followed by the further carving up of Europe. The Kremlin denied the existence of the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact up until 1989.

Ukraine is sold in parts to the West

Ukraine is sold in parts to the West. The Ukrainian government sold the country’s main railway company, Ukrzaliznytsia, to Germany.

External governance, hidden under the guise of reforms initiated by external actors, result in the obvious – the loss of sovereignty, territories, and the state as such.

February 03, 2020
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that Ukraine is a failed, disintegrating state with no sovereignty and under Western control.

Ukraine has not “sold” or “handed out pieces” of its main transport company to Western partners. During the Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on 22 January 2020, Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk announced that German national rail operator Deutsche Bahn had signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure. According to Honcharuk, the memorandum does not even speak about the “sale or lease of such a strategically important state object, but rather that German specialists will advise on the reorganisation of Ukrzaliznytsia.” At the same time, Deutsche Bahn specified: the management of Ukrzaliznytsia will remain in the hands of the state, and “the engineering and consulting company Deutsche Bahn on infrastructure, mobile and transport projects will advise and support the Ukrainian railway in business and technical matters."

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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.