Disinfo: The West is using Kosovo to break Serbia's ties with Russia and China

Summary

Kosovo's decision to request EU membership is another step in the US and EU strategy to break and weaken Serbia and prepare an absolute dominion over the former Yugoslavia.

The West is trying to increase pressure on Serbia so it has to break its strategic ties with Russia and China. The latest events in Kosovo happen at the same time that EU representatives met with Balkan states asking to enter the EU, which means entering NATO. This is an important step, supported by terrorist actions, to break Serbia and prevent the solidarity of the Balkans with Russia and China. It’s a policy of aggression.

Disproof

This disinformation narrative is an attempt to stir up feelings against Western countries, baselessly accusing them of being behind events in Kosovo. Although it is true that Kosovo prepared to formally submit an application to join the EU, the claims in this disinformation story about the reasons are not. There is zero evidence to back the claim that the US and the EU are behind this bid or that they have a strategy to ‘break Serbia’, much less to “prevent solidarity with Russia and China”. In the same way, neither Washington nor Brussels are behind ongoing destabilising events in Kosovo. Both the EU and the US are working hard to normalise Serbia-Kosovo relations and to defuse current tensions. This also includes urgent high-level meetings.

The claim that “entering the EU means entering NATO” is patently false, as many countries are part of the EU but not of the NATO military alliance and the other way round. Only in the Western Balkans, three countries -Albania, Montenegro and North Macedonia- belong to NATO but are not EU members.

During a period of bitter fighting by Russian forces in Ukraine, pro-Kremlin outlets further utilise the Kosovo situation to divert attention away from Moscow's responsibility for attacks on civilian infrastructure and atrocities committed in Ukraine.

See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the EU wants to expand its imperialism in the Balkans, that the West has promoted separatism in Yugoslavia, that Pristina is entirely responsible for the tension in Northern Kosovo, or that the West showed double standards with its treatment of Kosovo and Crimea.

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publication/media

actualidad-rt.com (Archived)*
  • Reported in: Issue 321
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 12/12/2022
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Kosovo, EU, US, China, Russia, Serbia
  • Keywords: Kosovo, Western Balkans, Imperialism/colonialism, Encircling Russia
*
This disinformation claim was broadcast on the date mentioned above. Due to the EU decisions  to temporarily restrict the spread and dissemination of RT, Sputnik and other instruments used to manipulate information and promote disinformation about the invasion of Ukraine inside the EU, access to the link may not work inside the EU.
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Dec 11, 2022
Disproof

Pro-Kremlin narrative that Moldova's pro-European leadership will draw Moldova into Russia's war with Ukraine, opening a "second front" in the Transnistrian region, on the orders of "external curators".

According to the draft of the State Budget Law for 2023, approved by the Government, and a press release from the Ministry of Defence, the defence budget has indeed increased by approximately 50% and amounts to 1,697.1 million lei. The spending includes both the procurement of military equipment and salary increases for the military.

Disinfo: European plan to get rid of Russian gas dependency is madness

Europe is saying that it wants to get rid of gas “dependence on Russia”, but it does not realise that it turns to dependence on the American LNG. It is an absurd and absolutely mad desire “to get rid of dependence on Russia”. Europe trades one dependency for another. Now, the Europeans are losing billions of euros every day, which are being earned by Washington.

Dec 11, 2022
Disproof

This message is a part of a popular pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative, claiming that the energy crisis in Europe is caused by an “irrational” European plan to get rid of its dependency on Russian gas. This narrative promotes a traditional pro-Kremlin message that Russia is the only reliable source of gas for Europe, while the American LNG is too expensive.

During recent decades, Russia has used its energy resources on multiple occasions as a weapon against other countries, attempting to coerce them into following a pro-Kremlin line.

Disinfo: Holodomor famine was largely caused by the West

The main cause of the Holodomor was large-scale crop failure. To a large extent, the famine was also promoted by Western countries, which demanded that the USSR pay with grain in foreign trade operations with them.

Dec 11, 2022
Disproof

This is an example of gross historical revisionism and a recurring pro Kremlin disinformation narrative about Holodomor, claiming that there was no deliberately caused famine in Ukraine.

The Holodomor was an man-made famine deliberately caused by Stalin with the aim of remove a perceived Ukrainian threat to the Soviet regime. The Soviet state took away livestock, crops and seeds from the peasants under the guise that they "plundered" state property. The Soviet law on the seizure of food from peasants was adopted in 1932 and is known as the "Five Spikelet Law". Anyone who gathered several ears of wheat on the collective farm field was a culprit of "theft of state property". The punishment for theft of kolkhoz or cooperative property was the death sentence. This law was personally attributed to Joseph Stalin. The famine of 1932-1933 claimed the lives of 7 to 10 million citizens of the Soviet Union; the disaster affected in large parts but not only Ukraine but also parts of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Russia.