Gay flags appeared on the buildings of American diplomatic missions in many countries, such as Russia, Israel, Latvia, Poland, South Korea, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. Russia responded to this provocative US move by saying that any manifestations of propagating unconventional sexual relations between minors in Russia are unacceptable.
This disinformation message is consistent with recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about Western moral decay, as well as imposing on countries values that destroy the moral foundations of traditional societies.
The narrative about “threatened values” is adapted to a wide range of topics and typically used to discredit liberal Western attitudes about the rights of women, ethnic and religious minorities and LGBTQ groups, among others. According to this narrative, the “effeminate West” is rotting under the onslaught of decadence, feminism, homosexuality and “political correctness”, while Russia defends traditional family values.
The rainbow flag is a symbol of sexual diversity among consenting adults; it has no particular reference to age, and does not in any way advocate for sex with or between minors.
In order to defame them, the LGBTQ community has been wrongly associated with pedophilia in the past. GLAAD, an organization that works for acceptance of the LGBTQ community through media, told Reuters: "There is a long-standing, homophobic and transphobic tactic of inaccurately comparing LGBTQ people to pedophiles and being LGBTQ to pedophilia. It’s debased and vile. It pains me to have to clarify that no, the LGBTQ community does not embrace pedophilia".
The European Union’s extension of its measures against Syria, in parallel with Washington’s implementation of the Caesar Act and in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, rises to the level of a crime against humanity.
Western countries are hypocrites, crying about the humanitarian situation in terrorist-controlled areas, while imposing an economic blockade on the entire Syrian people.
A recurring pro-Kremlin disnformation narrative about sanctions against the Syrian regime trying to portray them as illegal and targeting the Syrian population.
The EU and US sanctions do not target the Syrian population but individuals and companies who are involved with a political regime that has committed war crimes. See our video here for further details.
Many European politicians took a direct part in the Maidan events, supporting the protesters who attacked the security forces on Maidan. It also shows the weakness of then-president of Ukraine, Yanukovych, who, in principle, allowed Ukrainian Air Force to accompany American bombers in Crimea. These are the consequences of that weak-willed, spineless policy of Yanukovych as well. But Yanukovych is not the only one to blame. European politicians who signed the agreement with Yanukovych are also to blame.
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative depicting the 2013-14 protests in Kyiv as a coup d’état orchestrated by the West.
There was no coup d’état in Ukraine. The onset of the Euromaidan protests was a spontaneous and endogenous reaction by numerous segments of the Ukrainian population to former President Yanukovych’s sudden withdrawal from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013. European leaders were among those trying to negotiate a peaceful settlement before Yanukovich fled the country.
Relations between Russia and Western countries, including the United States, have deteriorated as a consequence of the Ukrainian crisis and the Crimean Peninsula’s accession to Russia in March 2014, and sanctions against Russia. For its part, Moscow is seeking to confront this hostile Western approach and to restore normal relations with the West.
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the illegal annexation of Crimea and the dismissal of Russian disinformation as an expression of Western "Russophobia".
Crimea is a part of Ukraine and was illegally annexed by Russia. In 2014, Russian troops obliged the parliament of Crimea to organise a referendum, which was illegitimate under international law, and then formally annexed the peninsula and brought it under Russian territorial control.
