Disinfo: White Helmets are frank falsifiers

Summary

The White Helmets are still doing everything they can to prove to the international community that Syrian President Bashar Assad is poisoning his people with either bleach or sarin-zaman-V-gases. And Washington itself is doing everything possible to make people believe these frank falsifiers. Because [the US] needs to throw Assad out at any cost.

Disproof

This is a recurring disinformation narrative deflecting blame for chemical attacks away from the Assad regime. It also aims to discredit the OPCW in addition to labelling the White Helmets as terrorists or as accomplices of terrorist organisations by staging and/or perpetrating chemical attacks. These claims are not supported by evidence. The UN-OPCW Joint Investigative Mechanism found Syria’s Government responsible for the April 2017 attack in Khan Shaykhun. On April 2018, Russia vetoed a US-drafted UN Security Council resolution that would have created a new inquiry to ascertain responsibility for chemical weapons attacks in Syria. In June 2018, the OPCW members granted it the power to assign responsibility for chemical attacks. Read more about the “alleged” usage of chemical weapons in Douma. For more disinformation cases attempting to discredit the OPCW, see here. [Note: Another disinformation case from the same article is that it is false to assign equal responsibility for the outbreak of WWII to the USSR as to Nazi Germany.]

Go to search

publication/media

ru.armeniasputnik.am (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 196
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 07/03/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Syria, US
  • Keywords: White Helmets, Chemical weapons/attack, Bashar al-Assad, Syrian War
see more

Disinfo: Coronavirus is a manipulative story

On a global scale, coronavirus is a kind of manipulative story. On the other hand, it is necessary to respond to it in some countries.

Mar 06, 2020
Disproof

Conspiracy theories about the 2019-nCoV coronavirus. The coronavirus (2019-nCoV) comes from a family of viruses that include SARS and MERS. It was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan in central China and has been rapidly spreading. As of 15th March 2020, over 153,517 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in over 143 countries/territories. You can see other examples in our database, such as claims that Bill Gates and George Soros are sponsoring it, that it is a UK, US or NATO creation and that the Americans have the cure, that it is an artificial disease which specifically targets Chinese DNA, that it was created with economic goals while Big Pharma companies are spreading panic for their own profit, that it is a biological weapon against Russia and China and that it will wipe out Ukraine’s population in a few days.

Disinfo: The US State Department is trying to eradicate the Orthodox Church

The US State Department is committed to the eradication of world Orthodoxy by replacing it with a pseudo-Orthodox church based on the Istanbul Patriarchate. On this basis, an anti-canonical, schismatic sect is being created. It was this sect that recognised the PCU [the Orthodox Church of Ukraine].

Mar 06, 2020
Disproof

Conspiracy theory with no evidence. Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Western interference in the affairs of the Orthodox Church. This claim also attempts to delegitimise the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, one of the pro-Kremlin media's ongoing disinformation campaigns against Ukraine, by claiming that the US inappropriately sought to influence the process. The Constantinople Patriarchate, located in Istanbul, is one of 15 independent, self-governing Orthodox churches. However, the Constantinople Patriarchate, also known as the Ecumenical Patriarchate, enjoys the status of primus inter pares (first among equals) and is regarded by other Orthodox Christians as the representative and spiritual leader of the Orthodox world. The decisions of the Constantinople Patriarchate are made only by the Patriarch and the Holy Synod. The granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was supported by all members of the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate after months of careful preparations and considerations. For more information, see here. See similar disinformation claiming that Ukrainian autocephaly is a US project. See similar recent narratives claiming that the US is trying to divide the Orthodox Church: The US stands behind the pressure upon the Serbian Church of Montenegro, The US government is trying to eradicate Christianity.

Disinfo: No fake news comes from Russia

No Fake News has been recorded coming from inside Russia during the last period, especially not the ones referring to a Russian conspiracy theory that the US was behind the spread of Coronavirus.

Part of the completely false information being published against Russia, for example, that Russia sent agents to the UK and poisoned an unnecessary spy (Sergei Skripal) and his daughter (Yulia Skripal).

Mar 06, 2020
Disproof

Our database has so far caught more than 70 cases related directly to Russian outlets spreading disinformation about the coronavirus alone in several languages.

Russophobia is often used in pro-Kremlin disinformation as an explanation for the West blaming Russia for anything. This message also contains recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury.