DISINFO: The West is preparing a disinformation campaign against Sputnik V
DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS
  • Outlet: hu.news-front.info (archived)*
  • Date of publication: March 16, 2021
  • Article language(s): Hungarian
  • Reported in: Issue 236
  • Countries / regions discussed: US
Tags:
coronavirus

DISINFO: The West is preparing a disinformation campaign against Sputnik V

SUMMARY

The US and its allies will launch a coordinated campaign to discredit the Sputnik V vaccine. The US wants Pfizer to benefit from the COVID-19 pandemic.

RESPONSE

An unsubstantiated claim, promoted by pro-Kremlin media outlets and suggesting that the West is waging a hybrid war against Russia's vaccination efforts.

While pro-Kremlin outlets pointed to an unnamed source from the Kremlin to promote the claim, no evidence is put forward about an alleged disinformation campaign against Sputnik V.

On the contrary, according to the findings of the Global Engagement Center, a research platform of the US State Department, pro-Kremlin disinformation outlets systematically engaged in discrediting the US-made Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in a bid to promote the Russian-developed vaccine instead on the global market. Among the disinformation outlets that have been actively attacking the US-made vaccines, was the Crimea-based News Front which is associated with Russia's Federal Security Service.

What is more, a number of EU countries are considering the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, while the European Medicine Agency (EMA) is currently conducting a rolling review the efficacy and safety of the vaccine under a rolling review. All this proves that there is no such coordinated campaign.

For more disinformation cases about the different vaccines, click here.

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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.

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