What does Russia want by spreading false information on Corona

Is Russia taking advantage of the Corona epidemic to provoke unrest in Western countries through fake news and misinformation? European observers who monitor the Russian media are apprehensive about this. READ MORE

Russia’s new media organization Sputnik claims that “very smart biologists and pharmacists” in the European country Latvia produced the new Kovid-19 Coronavirus. At the same time, other sources associated with the Russian power establishment Kremlin says that the virus was produced at the Porton Down base of the British Army.

Observers of the European The commission overseeing Russia analyzed 80 different reports that were published on Russia’s government media websites and contained false and misleading information about the coronavirus. The media platforms and authors writing them to have close ties to the Kremlin.

But is it a campaign launched in a thoughtful manner or is it part of the propaganda war between Russia and the western world. READ MORE

EU vs. Excerpts from Russian reports can be read in an article published on the Disinfo website titled “Misinformation on the Kremlin and Corona Virus”. After reading these reports, it seems that they are contradictory. For instance, an e-journal ‘The Oriental Review’, considered close to the Kremlin, writes: “When the chaos ends, the number of people killed by Kovid-19 will be less than those who die from the common flu.”

At the same time, Alexander Dugin, a Russian nationalist and open supporter of the Orthodox Church, claimed the exact opposite in another Russian e-journal. Dugin said that when this virus “will complete its victory march” around the world, it will destroy the existing world order.

But is there any motive behind such contradictory claims? EU observers say the aim is to sow seeds of “scatter and distrust” among them, creating confusion among European citizens.

Peter Stano, a spokesman for the head of foreign affairs and security policy in the European Union, says, “We see a lot of misinformation coming from outside the EU. Some of these were spread by Russia and pro-Russia sources is.” He said that Russia is not the only source of such information. According to him, wherever this misinformation is being spread, “People’s lives are being endangered by them”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has dismissed reports published in the Financial Times that Russia is deliberately spreading false information. He said, “We are talking of baseless claims. Keeping in view the situation, these claims appear to be the result of anti-Russia attitude.” He said that no evidence has been presented to substantiate these claims.

Peskov’s refusal immediately gained support from Russia’s state TV channel Russia Today (RT). An article by Nebojsa Malich was published on RT’s website, which was described as a Serbian-American journalist. This article states, “When everyone fails, they start criticizing Russia. The European Union seems to be trying to hide its failure on the Corona epidemic.”

Is Russia really behind this?

The question is, is Russia using the Coronavirus to attack European democracies? British fake news expert Ben Nimmo constantly monitors the Russian media. He does not understand that Russian President Putin may have asked to do so privately. They feel that it is part of Russia’s regular propaganda campaign against Western countries.

Nimmo says that the talk of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 being dropped or Crimea breaking from Ukraine and joining Russia was different. Then the Russian media was writing what the government was writing to him. But he considers the situation caused by the coronavirus to be different. He says that media institutions like Sputnik and RT only aim to tarnish the image of the Western world, irrespective of the issue.

“It shows how our the relationship is,” says Sergey Lagodinsky, a Russian affairs expert and European MP for the Green Party, in the Russian media. The current attitude, he says, is that there are far fewer cases of Kovid-19 in Russia than in the European Union, so Russian media institutions want to take advantage of the situation and spread chaos.

Originally published at https://www.mubahisa.in.