Language:

See all Disinfo Cases - Detail

Disinfo: Ukraine arrests teacher for promoting the Russian language

Summary

Punitive actions against their own citizens began in Ukraine. Ukraine has imprisoned a teacher of the Russian language in the city of Kherson. The Ukrainian authorities are trying to put a woman in prison for the fact that she was engaged in the preservation of the Russian language on the territory of Ukraine.

Disproof

This is a recurring pro-Kremlin propaganda narrative about the alleged discrimination of Ukraine's Russian-speaking minority and the country's ubiquitous Russophobia.

The case mentioned is ongoing trial against a resident of Kherson (a region of Ukraine bordering the temporarily occupied Crimea). The individual was detained by SBU officers suspected of high treason and not for "teaching Russian". 

Counterintelligence officers of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported on August 20 that they had stopped the activities of the FSB agent network of Russia, which operated in the Kherson region. According to the SBU, the suspect was recruited by the Russian special services in the illegally annexed Crimea in 2015. 

The case was heard behind closed doors at the request of the prosecution, which referred to the impossibility of disclosing the case materials. The suspect will remain under arrest until October 9. Also, the suspect was assigned a bail of half a million hryvnia. During the search, law enforcement officers seized the equipment through which the woman contacted the FSB, as well as other things that contain evidence of her activities, the investigation believes. The suspect may face punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 12 to 15 years with or without confiscation of property.

 

Go to search

publication/media

politnavigator.net (Archived)
Tsargrad TV (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 212
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 07/09/2020
  • Language/target audience: Russian
  • Country: Russia, Ukraine
  • Keywords: Russian language, FSB, Russophobia, SBU

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.

see more

Western hybrid war against Belarus is a preparation of attack against Russia

The Belarusian crisis is partly provoked by external interference with the hybrid war methods. In the light of ongoing information war, the West, though it conducts hybrid aggression against Belarus, is presented as a good player, whereas Russia is presented as a threat to Belarus’s sovereignty despite Russian assistance to the Belarusian state. Poland-located information centres which manage the Belarusian protests are among manifestations of Western aggressive actions. They result in an outbreak of violence, political destabilisation and undermined Belarusian economy.

It is clear that relocation of US and NATO troops to Lithuania and Poland, Navalny poisoning and upcoming anti-Russian sanctions are parts of a chain. The US wishes to establish a cordon sanitaire around Russia and needs Belarus as a missing link to put a collar over Russia.

The current hybrid war against Belarus is an exploration of attack against Russia. Given the external threat, the Union State of Belarus and Russia may, on the contrary, be activated. The Belarusian coup organisers will likely reach the opposite effect: Instead of tearing Belarus away from Russia, they will push the integration of the two countries forward. Belarus’s aspiration towards sovereignty was cynically tramped by the West. If needed, additional Russian military objects will be stationed in Belarus. Warsaw, Vilnius, and their Western suzerains should have no doubt about it.

September 18, 2020
Disproof

This publication promotes recurring pro-Kremlin propaganda narratives about Belarusian protests as being organised and controlled from abroad, particularly from Poland and Lithuania, about Western attempts to disrupt Belarusian-Russian relations in general and the development of the Union State of Belarus and Russia, in particular, and about Poland and Lithuania as US's puppets.

The publication also implicitly accuses the West of Navalny poisoning by conspiring that it was just one in a series of actions to disrupt Belarus-Russia relations. There are no proofs of West's implication in Navalny poisoning. Read our past analyses "Fifty ways to kill Navalny" and "Let's laugh at political murder!" explaining how pro-Kremlin media explain the case of Navalny poisoning, including through humour and ridicule.

Getting out of coma proves that Novichok wasn’t used on Navalny

Alexei Navalny’s coma indicates that if we assume that he was poisoned, then Novichok was not used.

Poisoning can be ruled out because there are no symptoms. But even if a dose of 400 times less than the lethal dose was used, he would come out of a coma, but his pupils would remain constricted, and there were no such symptoms.

September 18, 2020
Disproof

The story is part of an emerging web of counter-narratives designed to confuse Western public opinion and deny Moscow's involvement in the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. This argument follows a recurring Kremlin pattern of denying that Navalny was poisoned and that Moscow had anything to do with it. 

In this case, the argument is that Novichok is only a lethal military-grade nerve agent and that the result is always death. However, we know that Novichok is a highly toxic nerve agent that slows the heart, paralyses the muscles used for breathing and — if the dose is big enough — can lead to death by asphyxiation. A smaller dose may result in seizures, neuromuscular weakness, liver failure and other damage. This has been presented in various other reports here, here and here.