Disinformation in 2020: the most embarrassing and absurd eruptions of the Kremlin year



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1. Atlapaširdis nuodytojas

The Alexei Navaln case is, of course, a great embarrassment to the Russian state. Of course, it is not an attempt: the Kremlin does not blink before deciding to take such radical measures. Russia is ashamed that the state-hired assassins have “stumbled”, left evidence and displayed a clear lack of professionalism.

In December Alexei Navalna called to one of the FSB officials who participated in the attack against him, pretending to be a high-ranking officer. An FSB official, forgetting any precautions and security, cunningly tried to please the alleged official, confessing to the crime and sharing information about how the murder was planned, carried out, and how it failed.

In this way, the FSB official not only confirmed that the Russian civil service had indeed carried out an attack on A. Navalna, but that his appeasement with an unknown high-ranking official also showed a tradition of blind service and humility in the Russian state structures.

VIDEO: Alexei Navaln called his poison


2. Terrible vaccine

COVID-19 dominated world news throughout the year, as did the flow of disinformation. Since January 2020, EUvsDisinfo has detected more than 700 cases of pandemic misinformation, but the misinformation about the vaccine stands out as particularly bizarre and illogical.

In the early stages of the pandemic, the pro-Kremlin media beat up opponents of the vaccine and the conspirators, then suddenly turned 180 degrees and began to praise the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in every way.

Competitors’ preparations were derided as “monkey vaccines” until the Swedish-British company AstraZeneca invited the Russians to cooperate. Monkeys have not been spoken of since.

ALSO READ: Russian vaccines do not work: three doctors vaccinated with Sputnik V have been infected with COVID-19 in the Altai region

3. A filmmaker who falsifies

Oscar-winning director Nikita Michalkov wanted to show that the photos from the mass demonstration against Aliaksandr Lukashenko in Belarus were just computer-generated images.

Thus, his television show featured several photos edited by the program’s creators themselves, presented as evidence that other (real) photos are also false.

Forum Cinemas nuotr./Nikita Michalkovas

Forum Cinemas nuotr./Nikita Michalkovas

4. A secret “overheard” conversation

The world could not stop laughing at the illegitimate President of Belarus, Aliaksandr Lukashenko, when he shared a false record of an alleged conversation between German and Polish intelligence agents about alleged regime changes in Belarus, in which interlocutors complained that Lukashenko it was “tough”.

ALSO READ: Lukashenko laughs at the world: announces “evidence” of how Warsaw and Berlin negotiated with Navaln

5. Brave warriors … from a video game

Vladimir Solovyov is one of the most active disinformation distributors in Russia. On a television show, he shared videos that allegedly showed fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh, but were actually excerpts from the Arma3 video game.

This game, released 7 years ago, is probably very popular in the Kremlin, as the Russian Defense Ministry used it in 2018 as supposedly actual material from the war in Syria.

6. Very mysterious signs

A source of pro-Kremlin disinformation in Armenia sometimes shrouds the real hoaxes. One example is that the Lady Gaga video found “evidence” that the Illuminati were involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh war.

Such a detailed analysis of the “signs” is liked not only by Armenia’s relatively small news portals, but also by the largest Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, which annually searches for “forecasts” on the front page of The Economist.

7. Smoke lies

Several high-ranking members of the Russian parliament, the Duma, have long been known as reliable producers and disseminators of disinformation, who are not ashamed to spread complete nonsense in the information space. We have seen many examples of absurdity, let’s say how Russian lawmakers lie about “Danish brothels for zoophiles” and “America’s attack on Russia with climate weapons.”

8. No Zoom!

Disinformation is part of an ambitious takeover of the information space. If lying alone is not enough, the next step is to silence the participants of the public discourse or close the media or even the space where information is shared.

The last method was used in November 2020, when the St. Petersburg police organized a raid and closed a cafe for violating sanitary regulations. The owner of Café Zoom is convinced that the authorities really wanted to end the LGBT festival, which was held online on the Zoom videoconferencing platform.

The most embarrassing aspect of these mistakes is that they are unfortunate.

9. Abundance of melagus

EUvsDisinfo celebrated a frustrating anniversary in November 2020, adding 10,000 cases to its database. 10,000 cases of misinformation have been discovered on the Internet, so many false claims of damage. 10,000 cases to mislead, distort the truth and cause dissatisfaction.

So far, EUvsDisinfo has detected around 700 cases of misinformation about the coronavirus, in an attempt to scare the audience into questioning the actions of national governments, international organizations and health officials. Misinformation can be disastrous.

ALSO READ: Some Russian doctors do not want to be vaccinated with the Russian vaccine, so there are threats of dismissal

Neither shame nor decency

The title of this article may give the impression that errors can be “uncomfortable.” We could laugh at a crude and awkwardly composed lie until we remember that Alexander Lukashenko is a brutal dictator fighting excessive violence against peaceful protesters.

We smile when we see primitive “puppeteers” until we see anti-Semitism and homophobia. We laugh at memorandum about FSB agents who poisoned Alexei Navaln’s underwear until we remember that it was a large-scale, ambitious and carefully planned attempt, failed solely because of the professionalism of the Navaln flight pilots who decided to make an emergency landing and the medics from Omsk who identified the symptoms of poisoning.

The most embarrassing aspect of these mistakes is that they are unfortunate. Members of the Russian parliament are not ashamed to repeat old lies if they believe they can benefit from them. The Kremlin “journalists” see no point in correcting mistakes, and neither Mikhalkov nor Solovyov had enough decency to apologize for misleading their audience.

The illegitimate head of state illegally falsifies evidence without any hesitation and uses state controlled means for this purpose. Representatives of the Russian state proudly confirm that Russia is indeed killing people, only sometimes attempts fail.

Shame shows that there are principles and morality. Lies, falsifications and absurd nonsense are part of a fierce attack on democracy.



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