Disinfo: The West intervenes in referendum for new Russian Constitution

Summary

The West has been interfering, using social media, NGOs and media outlets, in Russia’s constitutional process since mid-January. Russia’s Upper House of Parliament’s Committee for the Protection of State Sovereignty plans to send data on Western intervention to the relevant state authorities after July 1st, the head of the commission Andrey Klimov said. Washington has the leading role behind this intervention.

Disproof

This is a disinformation narrative about the aggressive West and the so-called "colour revolutions". However, there is no such evidence that the West is interfering in the referendum on Russia's Constitution. Russian officials and state media routinely predict oddly specific Western "provocations" against Russia which never come to fruition. In 2019 alone, pro-Kremlin outlets said that NATO would kill its own officers to provoke a new conflict in Ukraine; that the UK would use its chemical labs to kill Russians; that the US was planning an anti-Russian operation in the Black Sea; that Canada was also planning an anti-Russian operation in the Black Sea and that NATO would intervene in Crimea to rig the Ukrainian presidential election.

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sputniknews.gr (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 203
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 25/06/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Greek
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Russia
  • Keywords: West, Anti-Russian, NGO, Conspiracy theory
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Disinfo: Ukraine shot down MH17 instead of Putin's plane

In July 2014, the Ukrainian Army was planning to shoot down the plane President Vladimir Putin was travelling in, but they failed and shot down MH17 instead.

Jun 24, 2020
Disproof

Recurring Russian disinformation about the crash of MH17, suggesting that Ukrainian forces were responsible for shooting down the plane whilst attempting to assassinate Vladmir Putin. There is no proof that Ukraine wanted to shoot down Vladimir Putin's plane. Moreover, the results of the investigation of the Joint Investigation Team are clear: flight MH17 was shot down by a missile from the 9M38 series, which was launched by the BUK TELAR system. The system was transported from the Russian Federation to an agricultural field near the city of Pervomaiskiy in eastern Ukraine, from where the rocket was launched. After firing, the system with one missing missile returned to the Russian Federation. On May 24 2018, JIT announced in its conclusion that the Buk belongs to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, a unit of the Russian armed forces in Kursk, Russian Federation. The public hearing on the incident started on 9 March 2020 in the Netherlands.

Disinfo: MH17 wasn't hit by a BUK missile, the Netherlands politicised the case

An expert pointed to facts that exclude a missile from hitting flight MH17. The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has been investigating for many years the circumstances of the crash of the Malaysian Boeing Flight MH17, that crashed in the Donbas in 2014. However, despite the wide resonance of this tragedy and the international support of the investigation, the Netherlands still has not been able to compile an objective picture of the disaster, preferring to fit the facts under the anti-Russian version of this clearly politicised case. This is a reason for the technical expert Yuri Antipov to engage in an independent investigation to establish the true cause of the crash. On his Facebook page, the expert cited a selection of photo reports depicting individual elements of the destroyed Boeing, contradicting the main version of JIT, who have been imposing the version of the mythical “BUK” on the whole world for six years.

Jun 24, 2020
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the MH17 crash, aiming to undermine the Joint International Investigation and subsequent criminal trial. There years ago, this same Russian 'independent expert', Yuriy Antipov, claimed that MH-17 crashed because of an explosion on board. He claimed that a bomb was planted on the aeroplane in the Netherlands. Also, in 2017, Antipov said that a BUK missile system, shown on videos by the Investigation Team (JIT), was brought there by Ukrainian forces. A special team, known as the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), was established to conduct an impartial criminal investigation into the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in 2014. The team 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. The criminal investigation was obliged to meet the standards set for an investigation in the Netherlands and other participating countries. This means that the JIT has agreed upon the rules and how the evidence should be collected in other countries. The cooperation in the JIT has made it possible for Dutch and Australian police officers to work on Ukrainian territory, together with Ukrainian investigating officers. In order to ascertain the cause of the crash, the JIT investigated all human remains, personal belongings and wreckage of the aircraft. In addition, they sought, and heard from, witnesses and experts, analysed radar and satellite images, assessed large amounts of telecom data such as intercepted telephone conversations and analysed big data. Read more about the investigation here. Based on the investigation, the JIT 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 minus one missile. The public hearing started on 9 March 2020 in the Netherlands. For our overview and analysis of disinformation narratives around the downing of MH17, click here. Read a similar case: "Disinfo: MH-17 wasn't hit by a BUK missile".

Disinfo: The West is morally decaying

The Russian President once again surprises the world with the quality of his political vision based on accurate knowledge of contemporary history and the inclusion of morality in his political approach and his outlook for the future. This takes place while western leaderships are plunged into lies, fallacies, and arrogance resulting from the moral decay of the entire system in Western countries while at the same time pretending to be a model of progress and advancement. For them, obscenities have become “frankness”, lies have become “cunningness”, folly has become “creativity”, and corruption “savvy”!

Jun 24, 2020
Disproof

This message is in line with a recurring pro-Kremlin narrative about the West's moral decay aimed at portraying Russia as morally superior to the West. Read similar cases claiming that Western societies are decadent, worship money and are devoted to the obsessive search for pleasure and that Western Europe is moving away from its Christian roots and is dominated by materialism and the pursuit of money.