Disinfo: The US plans to turn the Baltic states into an empty field and arena for Drang nach Osten against Russia

Summary

NATO upcoming military exercises in the Baltic states close to the borders of Belarus and Russia have to be understood through the prism of the aggressive US intentions to establish its world order. This can be done only through the military means and direct military aggression as it earlier happened to Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Libya. The US views the Baltic states not as independent countries but as NATO springboard for conducting military attack against Belarus and Russia. The colonizers want to wipe the territories of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia from population to organize an offensive NATO’s fist for American Drang nach Osten. The Baltic states’ governments are tasked to clear the territories of their quasi-countries from the population that NATO does not need. In order to do so, three types of actions were undertaken. First, Russian-speaking residents were recognized as non-citizens as part of the slavery philosophy of NATO and its Baltic puppets. In order to put Russians in unbearable conditions and to make them leave the Baltic states, wide-scale Russophobic policies were staged by the US and the EU. In fact, Americans do not need Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians either. Hence, the second NATO step was to push the most active part of the Baltic states’ societies to other EU countries. Third, the remaining population is kept under constant fear of alleged threat from the east, provoking stress and further emigration. Therefore, very soon the territories of the Baltic states will be completely depopulated and will turn into an empty field which NATO will be able to use as it wants.

Disproof

This publication represents a mix of conspiracies consistent with recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about NATO aggressive plans towards Belarus and Russia, socio-economic degradation in the Baltic States, lost sovereignty / external control. The disinformation message involves a major element of Nazi ideology – Drang nach Osten – to draw parallels between Nazi Germany and the US / West / NATO. It also mispresents Latvian and Estonian domestic legislation on citizenship, demographic and migration trends as NATO-driven Russophobic policies aimed to depopulate the Baltic states. NATO's presence in the region is at the request of the host nations. NATO has taken defensive and proportionate steps in response to a changed security environment. Following Russia's aggressive actions against Ukraine, Allies requested a greater NATO presence in the region. A 2016 Gallup poll found that most people in Allied countries in the Baltic region associate NATO with the protection of their country.

publication/media

  • Reported in: Issue 179
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 09/01/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Russian, Belarusian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: US, Belarus, Baltic states, Russia
  • Keywords: West, Anti-Russian, European Union, Conspiracy theory, NATO, Baltic states, Nazi/Fascist
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Disinfo: NATO openly participates in the Donbas conflict

It is no secret that NATO has been heavily involved in the conflict [in Donbas]. There are pictures of the presence of American soldiers. Nobody talked about it. We know there were soldiers, Polish mercenaries, it’s very annoying. After a six-month investigation, evidence has been recovered confirming that the Americans were present and supplied a whole bunch of weapons. They were not shy about it. A journalist doing his job could have found this information. Russia has been accused of being the main actor and aggressor in the conflict, but no one has questioned the role of NATO and the Americans. And we know that. Just type in Google, you will find this information but it has always been silenced.

Disproof

No evidence is given concerning the presence of NATO troops or Polish mercenaries among pro-Ukrainian forces. This is a recurrent conspiracy narrative advanced by Russian media. Pro-Kremlin sources repeatedly accuse foreign military of taking part in the war in Ukraine without providing any evidence, see dozens of cases in our database. Earlier, Polish Ministry for National Defence and Lithuania's Armed Forces have confirmed that their soldiers have only delivered trainings to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and do not take part in combat actions. Thus, in 2014 Robert Pszczel, Director of NATO Information Office in Moscow, was invited to the programme ‘Politics’ (Channel Rossiya 1). His opponents, notorious Russian nationalists Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Aleksandr Rutskoy, accused Pszczel of NATO fuelling the war in Donbas and stated that ‘hundreds of Poles’ were killed in Donbas, their bodies ‘secretly being taken to Warsaw’. No forensic evidence of such a large scale operation was ever given. Russia’s state-run news agency RIA has also reported the presence of Polish mercenaries in Donbas, quoting Eduard Basurin, deputy chief of headquarters of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people’s republic. Basurin expressed confidence that there were foreign mercenaries near Debaltseve but added they did not have any ‘personal possessions’ to prove it. “As soon as we find them we’ll show,” he said. So far, it did not happen. See more examples of "Polish mercenaries in Ukraine" in the digest composed by Belsat TV channel based in Warsaw. As for American soldiers in Donbas, the disinformation outlet does not publish the "proving pictures" to support such a huge claim. At that, over the five years of war that has pitted Ukrainian forces against Russia-backed separatists, the United States has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in military gear to Ukraine: night-vision goggles, flak jackets, vehicles, counter-battery radars. After years of internal debate that preceded his administration, President Donald Trump began supplying Ukraine with sophisticated anti-tank missiles known as Javelins. The US Congress' proposals to send weaponry to Ukraine further intensified in response to an incident in November 2018, when Russian Coast Guard ships seized three Ukrainian boats and 24 sailors in the Kerch Strait near the illegally annexed by Russia Crimean Peninsula. The disinformation outlet visibly does not deny the Russian aggression in Ukraine. But in the best case, it mixes up things. It tries to equalize the official military aid to a sovereign State, which followed after years of assessments, parliamentary votes and discussions after further escalation incidents, with Russian still non-officially recognized intervention in Ukraine since 2014. The Russian aggression, which provoked the war in Donbas, was led by identified Russian FSB officer. The graves of Russian mercenaries, in contrast to the Polish ones, are found. See more disinformation cases on the war in Donbas.

Disinfo: The United States raised the Islamic State terrorist organisation

Under Obama, the United States raised the Islamic State terrorist organisation to explain the invasion of Syria. It was, of course, a lengthy process. And today led to the fact that for the first time a whole country (Iran) dared to formally speak out against the United States.

Disproof

No evidence given to support this claim and a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that either the US or the West is behind the creation of ISIS/Daesh. This message is part of a broader conspiracy theory alleging that the United States has established many terrorist organizations and controls global terrorism. Read similar messages here, here and here. In fact, the US is part of the global coalition against Daesh.

Disinfo: Only the US has the capacity to shoot down Ukrainian flight PS752

Kyiv is silent about another version, which is not associated with a technical malfunction. This is shooting down by an air defence system. In the current reality, only the US could do it.

Disproof

Conspiracy theory about the downing of the Ukrainian flight PS 752. Iran has recognised that its military forces unintentionally shot down the passenger jet. On January 11, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani wrote on Twitter: “Armed Forces’ internal investigation has concluded that regrettably, missiles fired due to human error caused the horrific crash of the Ukrainian plane & death of 176 innocent people.” Earlier, intelligence services of Canada and the United States informed that the Ukrainian plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile minutes after departure from the Tehran airport. Find here the EU statement regarding the incident.