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Disinfo: The West has been trying to whitewash Nazi crimes

Summary

There have been attempts recently by the West to whitewash Nazi crimes and transfer responsibility for World War II to the Soviet Union.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative attempting to link the West and its allies in the Baltic countries, Ukraine, and Poland with Nazism, Fascism, and anti-Semitism. The accusation of Nazism is a popular propaganda technique used by pro-Kremlin outlets as explained in our following analysis Nazi east, Nazi west, Nazi over the cuckoo's nest.

The statement that the West tries to whitewash Nazi crimes is a conspiracy theory and a part of the Kremlin’s efforts aimed at historical revisionism, and absolving the USSR of any responsibility towards the instigation of World War II and shifting it instead to Western countries.

This is part of a recurring attempt to erode the disastrous historical role of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact through statements that the USSR was forced to sign this pact; other European countries signed various international agreements with Adolf Hitler and the Munich Agreement triggered WWII. The signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was a mutual decision of two totalitarian regimes (Nazi Germany and the Stalinist USSR) aimed at the division of Eastern and Central Europe between these two powers. It is a fact that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact contained the Secret Supplementary Protocol, which assumed the division of Poland and other Eastern European countries between the USSR and Germany.

As other examples of this narrative, read the debunking of the claim that the European Union is a Nazi Project here. In addition, see similar disinformation cases such as Europe is becoming Nazi again, and the EU continues aggressive policies of Nazi Germany.

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RT Arabic (ar.rt.com) (Archived)
ar.shafaqna.com (Archived)
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  • Reported in: Issue 197
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 12/05/2020
  • Language/target audience: Arabic
  • Country: USSR, Russia, Ukraine, US
  • Keywords: United Nations, Historical revisionism, WWII, The West, Nazi/Fascist
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The US is rewriting World War II history

The United States is trying to rewrite history in its favour, with the aim of diminishing the role of the Soviet Red Army in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II.

May 13, 2020
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative on WWII and the West.

The accusation in this article against the US is a reaction to a competition organised by the US Embassy in Hungary for "proposals for programmes that foster truthful recognition and remembrance of the tragedies of the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the long road to freedom that followed." What angered pro-Kremlin media is that, amongst others, the proposals should "focus on individual experiences and oral histories... under the tyranny of the Soviet Union".

More than 7000 POWs were buried alive, killed in gas chambers or shot by Finns in Karelia during WWII

More than 7000 POWs were buried alive, killed in gas chambers or shot by Finns in Karelia during WWII, says Investigative Committee of Russia, which has opened a genocide investigation of Finns conducting mass killings in Karelia during WWII.

May 13, 2020
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation message focusing on Finland and Russia's Karelia during WWII. In October 2019, Russia's Security Service FSB released "secret documents" about the conditions in the Finnish camps. In April 2020, more documents were published, and former prisoners of the Finnish concentration camps asked the head of the Russian Investigating committee Alexander Bastrykin to launch an investigation into crimes of the occupying authorities during the war.

While it is true, therefor, that Russia's investigative committee has indeed launched such an investigation, the media outlet in question repeats its questionable claims without challenging them.

US might be developing weaponised insects; Pentagon’s biolabs must be investigated

Leaving your opponent without a harvest, which could lead to famine, is a much slower approach to reaching one’s aim. But it is a practical one, as the land could still be used for growing crops in the future. Such a bioweapon (an insect that introduces genetically modified material) could be deployed by an aggressor without the need for special equipment, thus leaving no trace of an attack. No means of spreading any chemicals or toxins would be found either as these could serve as indirect proof of a deliberate (far from natural) attack on plants. Filling a field with weaponized insects is all one needs.

Concerns are growing about the fact that the United States has been providing a great deal of funding for biological programs that may have dual uses, such as conducting controversial experiments with infectious agents that cause deadly diseases; testing mechanisms of dispersal; increasing the scope of military research in biolabs abroad, and others. And as there are more and more questions about the nature of research done in numerous secret biolabs of the Pentagon, an unbiased international investigation ought to be conducted into their work.

May 13, 2020
Disproof

An unfounded conspiracy theory connected to recurring disinformation claims about the US allegedly developing bioweapons at secret facilities. See related examples of disinformation about the Lugar lab in Georgia. These messages are a longstanding element of pro-Kremlin disinformation - and especially in the current context of the coronavirus pandemic, pro-Kremlin media have been actively spreading disinformation claims about the US - or the West more broadly - manufacturing biological weapons; see here for an overview.

Also see related disinformation cases alleging that US laboratories in Ukraine are deadly; that COVID-19 brings attention to secret US laboratories on the borders of US and China; that US is afraid of leakage of infectious substances on its territory so it builds secret laboratories in colonized countries.