{"id":204144,"date":"2020-03-20T08:20:50","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T08:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=204144"},"modified":"2020-03-22T08:49:20","modified_gmt":"2020-03-22T08:49:20","slug":"russia-deploying-coronavirus-disinformation-to-sow-panic-in-west-eu-document-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=204144","title":{"rendered":"Russia deploying coronavirus disinformation to sow panic in West, EU document says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robin Emmott \u2013 Reuters March 18, 2020<\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the EU claims lacked evidence and did not cite any specific documents to back up their claims. \u201cWe\u2019re talking again about some unfounded allegations which in the current situation are probably the result of an anti-Russian obsession,\u201d he said. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Russian media have deployed a \u201csignificant disinformation campaign\u201d against the West to worsen the impact of the coronavirus, generate panic and sow distrust, according to a European Union document seen by Reuters.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Kremlin denied the allegations on Wednesday, saying they were unfounded and lacked common sense.<\/span><\/p>\n

The EU document said the Russian campaign, pushing fake news online in English, Spanish, Italian, German and French, uses contradictory, confusing and malicious reports to make it harder for the EU to communicate its response to the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA significant disinformation campaign by Russian state media and pro-Kremlin outlets regarding COVID-19 is ongoing,\u201d said the nine-page internal document, dated March 16, using the name of the disease that can be caused by the coronavirus.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe overarching aim of Kremlin disinformation is to aggravate the public health crisis in Western countries…in line with the Kremlin\u2019s broader strategy of attempting to subvert European societies,\u201d the document produced by the EU\u2019s foreign policy arm, the European External Action Service, said.<\/span><\/p>\n

An EU database has recorded almost 80 cases of disinformation about coronavirus since Jan. 22, it said, noting Russian efforts to amplify Iranian accusations online, cited without evidence, that coronavirus was a U.S. biological weapon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most scientists believe the disease originated in bats in China before passing to humans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov pointed to what he said was the lack in the EU document of a specific example or link to a specific media outlet.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking again about some unfounded allegations which in the current situation are probably the result of an anti-Russian obsession,\u201d said Peskov.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The EU document cited examples from Lithuania to Ukraine, including false claims that a U.S. soldier deployed to Lithuania was infected and hospitalized. It said that on social media, Russian state-funded, Spanish-language RT Spanish was the 12th most popular news source on coronavirus between January and mid-March, based on the amount of news shared on social media.<\/span><\/p>\n

The EEAS declined to comment directly on the report.<\/span><\/p>\n

The European Commission said it was in contact with Google (GOOGL.O<\/a>), Facebook (FB.O<\/a>), Twitter (TWTR.N<\/a>) and Microsoft (MSFT.O<\/a>). An EU spokesman accused Moscow of \u201cplaying with people\u2019s lives\u201d and appealed to EU citizens to \u201cbe very careful\u201d and only use news sources they trust.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHUMAN CREATION\u201d<\/h2>\n

The EU and NATO have previously accused Russia of covert action, including disinformation, to try to destabilize the West by exploiting divisions in society.<\/span><\/p>\n

Russia denies any such tactics and President Vladimir Putin has accused foreign foes of targeting Russia by spreading fake news about coronavirus to whip up panic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Russian media in Europe have not been successful in reaching the broader public, but provide a platform for anti-EU populists and polarize debate, analysis by EU and non-governmental groups has shown.<\/span><\/p>\n

The EEAS report cited riots at the end of February in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic now seeking to join the EU and NATO, as an example of the consequences of such disinformation.<\/span><\/p>\n

It said a fake letter purporting to be from the Ukrainian health ministry falsely stated here were five coronavirus cases in the country. Ukrainian authorities say the letter was created outside Ukraine, the EU report said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPro-Kremlin disinformation messages advance a narrative that coronavirus is a human creation, weaponized by the West,\u201d said the report, first cited by the Financial Times.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPro-Kremlin disinformation messages advance a narrative that coronavirus is a human creation, weaponized by the West,\u201d said the report, first cited by the Financial Times.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In case people start to realise that the western powers are whipping up baseless fears about Coronavirus, they\u2019re now blaming Russia. Without a shred of evidence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[105,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-russia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=204144"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204167,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204144\/revisions\/204167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=204144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=204144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=204144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}