Disinfo: Weinstein's conviction resembled a Stalinist show trial

Summary

The trial of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein resembles Stalinist trials. Everything that happened in America today was like in our long-past history. Two ladies stepped forward with accusations but no evidence. No material evidence, no witnesses, nothing was presented. In the best tradition of Stalinist trials, a media campaign was launched to turn an Oscar-winning victim into a disgusting beast, and reprisal against him had to be inevitable and demonstrative.

Weinstein was subject to physical influence and was forced to chemically lower the level of his male hormone. The intimidation has made a strong man a sick man.

Disproof

This case is in line with the Kremlin's ongoing disinformation efforts to paint the Western countries as morally degenerate, corrupting "traditional" values - in this case, viciously attacking masculinity. There is zero evidence to support the outlandish and baseless claim that Harvey Weinstein was subjected to physical influence and injected with a hormone suppressant.

Harvey Weinstein, the former Hollywood producer whose history of sexual abuse was brought to light through the #MeToo movement, was convicted by a New York jury on 24 February 2020 on two of five charges: a criminal sex act in the first degree and rape in the third degree. The jury of seven men and five women at the New York supreme court took five days to reach their verdict, finding Weinstein guilty of a criminal sex act in the first degree for forcing oral sex on the former Project Runway production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006, and rape in the third degree of an unnamed woman in a New York hotel in 2013. Weinstein was acquitted of three further charges, including the two most serious counts of predatory sexual assault - which carried a possible life sentence - and an alternative count of rape in the first degree. The prosecutors called 27 witnesses over 12 days, with six women testifying against Weinstein. The timeline of the trial is available here. Weinstein's sentencing is scheduled for March 11.

The Stalinist show trials were a campaign of terror carried out through the late 1920s-30s against Soviet citizens deemed enemies of the party. Known as the “Great Terror” or the “Great Purge,” the Soviet secret police arrested millions of people, including government officials, scientists, artists, and writers. Hundreds of thousands were executed or died while in labor camps throughout the country in the purges of 1936-1938.

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Dmitriy Kiselyev Vesti nedeli - YouTube [from 1:41:38 to 1:43:25] [from 1:41:38 to 1:43:25]
  • Reported in: Issue 186
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 01/03/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: US
  • Keywords: Western values, Media, Joseph Stalin
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Feb 29, 2020
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Disinfo: Activists claimed hundreds of thousands participating in march in memory of Boris Nemtsov

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Disproof

The report is ridiculing opposition march in memory of the murdered opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, presenting its participants as people who don't really know what they were there for and what signs they carried. The organizers did not claim they were 200 000. Over 22,000 people rallied for Saturday’s march in a square around 2 kilometres (1.24 miles) from the Kremlin, according to White Counter, a monitoring organization that tallies up participants at rallies using metal detector frames, reports Reuters.