Analysts: Russia Using Virus Crisis to Sow Discord in West
campaign
on coronavirus in the Western media, intended to fuel panic and discord
among allies, experts tell VOA.
The European Union has accused Moscow of pushing fake news online in
English, Spanish, Italian, German and French, using "contradictory,
confusing and malicious reports” to make it harder for the bloc leaders
to communicate its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reuters news agency reported Wednesday that the European External
Action Service issued a nine-page internal document March 16 saying that
"the overarching aim of Kremlin disinformation is to aggravate the
public health crisis in Western countries … in line with the Kremlin’s
broader strategy of attempting to subvert European societies.”
The document, seen by Reuters, says an EU database has recorded almost 80 cases of disinformation about coronavirus since January 22, some of them claiming that coronavirus was a U.S. biological weapon.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov promptly denied the accusation citing a lack of specific examples.
"We’re talking again about some unfounded allegations, which in the
current situation are probably the result of an anti-Russian obsession,”
he said.
But Russia analysts tell VOA that the Russian government is using
every means possible to use the coronavirus crisis to its advantage as
part of its information warfare against the West.
Russia has reported less than 200 confirmed COVID-19 cases and no
deaths, compared with about 80,000 cases and about 3,500 deaths in
Europe.
"The Russian media is using these numbers to praise the Russian
government and personally President Vladimir Putin for allegedly
preventing the coronavirus from spreading fast in Russia,” said
political analyst and historian Peter Eltsov, author of the new book The
Long Telegram 2.0: A Neo-Kennanite Approach to Russia.
Eltsov said the Russian media also claim that even China is handling
the crisis better than the European Union and the United States.
"Some talk shows even spread conspiracy theories, claiming that the
U.S. government has invented and is testing coronavirus as means of
biological warfare."
Eltsov says the goal of this propaganda is to sow chaos and dissension in the EU, NATO and the United States.
"On many occasions, Putin emphasized that Russia needs a new security
architecture in Europe. As European countries are cordoning themselves,
he may see it as an opportunity to put his plans in action.”
U.S. Congress has found indisputable evidence that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election, and many officials say there is no doubt that Moscow plans to do so again in this year’s election.
During a joint 2017 press conference in
Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron asked Putin publicly to stop the
fake news against him generated by the Sputnik news agency and RT
television network.
Klaus Larres, professor of international affairs at the University of
North Carolina, noted that Russia has used every opportunity it has had
to weaken Europe, notably during the 1973 oil crisis and 2008 global
financial crisis.
"It is hardly surprising that some Russian state actors are
attempting to exploit the coronavirus crisis through conspiracy theories
disseminated on the internet,” he told VOA.
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