Disinfo: Ukrainian community in Crimea says there is no hint of national hostility on the peninsula

Summary

Ukrainians who live in Crimea got the opportunity to comfortably integrate into the cultural, social and economic space of Russia. This was announced at the UN Security Council by video conference from the inhabitants of the peninsula themselves. They got the opportunity to speak at the meeting of the organisation for the first time. According to the head of the Ukrainian community of Crimea, Anastasia Gridchina, there is no hint of national hostility on the peninsula: after reunification with Russia, no one perceived Ukrainians as strangers.

Disproof

Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Crimea. The TV channel cites Anastasia Gridchina, the president of the Ukrainian Community in Crimea. The "Ukrainian Community in Crimea" is a Kremlin-controlled organisation, headed by members of Russia’s ruling party United Russia. The organisation was established in 2016, two years after Russia annexed Crimea and its purpose is to showcase a positive life for Ukrainians on the occupied peninsula. According to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), legislation and administrative measures that discriminate against certain ethnic groups and indigenous peoples continue to be applied in the annexed Crimea. These include measures concerning matters of citizenship, learning the Ukrainian language, registration of religious communities and activities of Crimean Tatar self-government bodies, including the Mejlis. In addition to that, UN CERD noted that Russia had not provided information on what actions had been taken to investigate and prosecute those responsible for violating the rights of Crimean Tatars, which included the cases of forced disappearances of people, arbitrary detentions and inhuman treatment. The Committee concluded that the government of the Russian Federation had not complied with the Committee’s previous recommendations. The UN continues to document violations of international human rights and humanitarian law perpetrated by the Russian Federation, as the occupying Power, including deportations of protected persons, forced conscription and restrictions on freedom of expression. Anti-Discrimination Centre “Memorial”, in partnership with other organisations, has earlier submitted several reports (1) (2) on discrimination of Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea to the UN CERD.

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5-tv.ru (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 213
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 21/09/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Ukraine, Russia
  • Keywords: illegal annexation, Human rights, Ukrainian disintegration, UN, Crimean Tatars, Ukrainian statehood, Crimea
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Disinfo: Russia’s Avangard missile system can devastate US defences, The National Interest says

Russia’s Avangard missile system can devastate US defences, The National Interest says. This US magazine, specialised in security, published a text by publicist Peter Suciu about what the creation of the Russian hypersonic unit Avangard means for the US. The author of the publication mentions that Avangard has hypersonic speed and is able to maneuver in the atmosphere. It quotes China’s official stance, that the Avangard equipped with nuclear heads can “devastate” US defences.

Sep 20, 2020
Disproof

This is a deliberate distortion of the original article in The National Interest, titled “Is the Russian Avangard Hypersonic ICBM a Serious Threat?”, where author Peter Suciu says that it is “reported [for the Avangard] to have both hypersonic speed and an ability to fly a ‘maneuvering’ flight path through the atmosphere”, but, contrary to the claim, he doesn’t affirm it himself. Also, the alleged quote about China’s official stance is also manipulated: it is a reference to a previous article in The Eurasian Times where China praises the capabilities of the missile, but where the description of its “devastating” effects is done by a Russian military official, Major General Vladimir Popov, not by the Chinese authorities. Pro-Kremlin media frequently resort to this manipulative technique of quoting sentences from serious publications and then introducing a distorted message as if it was part of the original article, in this case to promote a recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Russia’s military might. See other examples in our database, such as false claims that British outlet The Guardian pointed to ruling elite as the real instigators of the racial crisis in the US and reported that the EU remained silent as the Europeans couldn’t buy food for the first time in 75 years; that Newsweek magazine explained how the US coup in Iran will end; that Soros’ structures in the media and think tanks saw an opportunity in the coronavirus pandemic to attack the “bad guys”; that the US National Counterintelligence and Security Centre put Wikileaks at the same threat level as jihadist organisations in its last report; or that the US special envoy for Syria admitted that Washington’s goal was to defend terrorists from Russian attacks.

Disinfo: Ugly commercial interests are behind the criticism of the Russian COVID 19 vaccine

There are very ugly commercial interests behind the criticism of the Russian vaccine. This was understandable even before the registration of the vaccine when a number of special services of foreign states accused Russia of allegedly stealing its vaccine. It became clear that this is not the case, because our vaccine is very different from others and much better. But a series of attacks began. Pharmaceutical Association of Western Companies began to declare that the vaccine could not be registered until the end of Phase 3 clinical trials. But now we see that China registered the vaccine before the end of phase 3, the UAE as well as the USA and Britain announced plans to register their vaccines before the end of phase 3.

Sep 20, 2020
Disproof

On Aug 11, 2020, Russia declared it is the first country in the world to approve a vaccine against coronavirus. Nonetheless, there are widespread concerns that the approval is premature. At the time of approval, the vaccine had not even started phase 3 trials, nor had any results on the earlier stage trials been published, worlds scientists said on the Lancet. WHO expressed concerns as for preternatural registration of vaccine. Following the criticism, Russia published its response on the Lancet. Then international experts expressed concerns about statistical anomalies revealed during the publication of the results of the first and second phases of clinical trials of the Russian vaccine. Publishing their clarifications, Russia did not address the criticism, in essence, analysed Deutsche Welle. The narrative that any criticism of Russian achievements is due to competition reasons, is a recurrent conspiracy. The statement that democratic countries - US, UK also want to approve their vaccines before the end of clinical trials, as Russia did, is untrue. As for September 20, 2020, the CEO of Moderna, American company developing its own vaccine, mentioned in the disinformation report, expressed no such plans. In August 2020, the American, British and Canadian governments said that Russian hackers are attempting to steal coronavirus vaccine research. At that, no evidence had emerged that data was stolen. There was likely little immediate damage to global public health, cybersecurity experts said.

Disinfo: Antifa are burning their own country

Not only Trump supporters, but also many apolitical Americans are convinced that the forests were set on fire by Antifa militias, sponsored by the Democratic Party. This explains the unprecedented scale of fires this year in the US.

Sep 20, 2020
Disproof

Conspiracy theory and recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the US Democratic Party. There is no evidence that Antifa or members of the Democratic Party are deliberately starting forest fires. One of the latest fires in California that has burned more than 7,000 acres (2,800 hectares) was caused by a firework at a “gender-reveal party”, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) has found. In a statement released late on September 9, the department said: “The fire began at 10.23 am on September 5, 2020 in the El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa,” before spreading north. Climate change is also making the situation with the wildfires in the US worse. "Wildfire activity in the United States is changing dangerously, particularly in the west, as conditions become hotter and drier due to climate change," the Union of Concerned Scientists says.