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Disinfo: Western vaccine manufacturers rely on experimental and untested technologies, which delay efforts to combat coronavirus

Summary

Western vaccine manufacturers rely on experimental, little-studied and untested over the long-term technologies in the development of the coronavirus vaccine. This leads to obstacles during their clinical trials, which delays the introduction of drugs in public circulation and negatively affects the efforts to combat the coronavirus.

Disproof

This narrative is part of the on-going pro-Kremlin disinformation on coronavirus aiming to promote the Sputnik V vaccine and present Russia as a 'leader in the COVID-19 management'.

The claim implies that the West relies on "experimental technologies", while Sputnik V uses live human adenovirus, which has been proven safe over decades of studies. This assertion is false since WHO's database registers at least 11 other vaccines that use similar technology. Moreover, the potential effectiveness of human adenovirus-based vaccines remains a matter of debate.

Companies developing the vaccine in the West adhere to standard testing procedure, which usually involves years of research and testing before reaching the clinic, but scientists are now aiming to produce a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine by next year.

On the other hand, there is credible evidence that the Russian government pressed Russian scientists and researchers to be the first to find a vaccine against Covid-19, and did everything at hand to shorten the process, raising concerns about the safety and efficiency of the Sputnik V vaccine. For further debunking, check Polygraph.

Read similar cases claiming that ugly commercial interests are behind the criticism of the Russian vaccine, that Russian progress in COVID-19 vaccine has become for the West an outrageous challenge and that the West lost another round in fight against the pandemic.

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publication/media

Sputnik Lithuania - Russian (Archived)
vz.ru (Archived)
Sputnik Moldova - Russian (Archived)
rossaprimavera.ru (Archived)
Ritm Evrazii (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 215
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 28/09/2020
  • Language/target audience: Russian
  • Country: Russia
  • Keywords: coronavirus, health, vaccination, Russian superiority, The West

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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Trial on Khangoshvili’s murder is staged

In Berlin, a certain political decision was made regarding the verdict that will be passed by a German court regarding the Russian citizen Sokolov, who is accused of the 2019 murder of Shamil Basayev’s associate, one of the terrorist leaders in the North Caucasus, Zelimkhan Khangoshvili. All roles in this staging process are pre-assigned. There is no doubt that as a result of the beginning of the court hearings, the blame for the fatal attack on Khangoshvili – a man who made many blood enemies during his criminal career, including in the criminal world of different countries – will be attributed, as already stated in the press, to Russian state structures.

October 13, 2020
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Khangoshvili's murder.

As was announced by the Office of the German Federal Public Prosecutor (Generalbundesanwaltschaft, GBA): A defendant in the murder case received an order from the Russian authorities, at an unspecified point in time before July 18, 2019. The Central government of the Russian Federation commissioned the defendant to liquidate Tornike K. [name of Khangoshvili after he received asylum in Germany], a Georgian national of Chechen descent." A months-long investigation by Bellingcat and its partners, The Insider and Der Spiegel, has pointed to that the assassination of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin was planned and organised by Russia’s FSB security agency.

Contemporary liberalism is totalitarian and non-liberals are enemies to be killed and destroyed

Karl Popper – George Soros’s mentor –  viewed anybody who is not a liberal as an enemy of the open society.  It is increasingly clear that today’s liberalism is becoming totalitarian. Through de-platforming and “cancelling culture” globalists censor alternative thinkers.  Anyone who is not a liberal is viewed by contemporary liberalism as an enemy of the open society who must be killed and destroyed. Liberal totalitarianism, similarly to other totalitarian regimes, is based on a culture of destruction of the enemy. In liberal totalitarianism non-liberals are labelled “ fascists”, “Stalinists”, “terrorists”, “extremists” and are considered enemies that should be exterminated and destroyed.

October 12, 2020
Disproof

Conspiracy theory. The message in this video is consistent with a recurring pro-Kremlin narrative that seeks to discredit liberal democracies by claiming that liberal societies are totalitarian systems ruled by “globalist elites” and “shadow governments”. This narrative portrays the liberal societies of the West as ideological dictatorships that have imposed a dominant “liberal globalist “ ideology and claims that “the elites” and mainstream media in these societies persecute anyone who expresses views that dissent from dominant “politically correct” liberal-globalist thinking. This video suggests that in Western liberal societies, dissidents are not only silenced and persecuted but are physically exterminated.

Furthermore, this narrative misinterprets the concept of "the Paradox of Tolerance" of Karl Popper. With this idea, Popper wanted to express that it seems a contradiction that a tolerant society is intolerant against intolerance. But according to Popper it is not. This does not means he defends liberalism as a political movement, but the right to suppress intolerance if necessary.

US is stirring up conflicts around Russia aiming to achieve destabilisation in the post-Soviet space

The US media quite lightheartedly disclose that the US is aiming to achieve destabilisation in the post-Soviet space and indicate why they are doing it: since Russia dares reclaim the status of a global player and meddles in the world’s agenda, it will get punished by a ring of fire around the post-Soviet space. There are always smouldering internal conflicts and what [the US] is doing is stirring them up, no wonder they all went up in one go and are so similar.

October 12, 2020
Disproof

Conspiracy theory, based on a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the US presence in Europe and colour revolutions.

There is no evidence that the US is trying to destabilise Russia. The US State Department informs that "the United States would like to move beyond the current low level of trust with Russia, stabilise our relationship, and cooperate where possible and when it is in the core U.S. national security interest to do so. [...] The long-term goal of the United States is to see Russia become a constructive stakeholder in the global community."