Author: disinfo5
The ambassadors of the member states of the European Union have reached an agreement on the first stage of a plan to allocate the revenues generated by frozen Russian assets to the reconstruction of Ukraine, announces Belgium, which holds the semi-annual presidency of the European Council, as reported by AFP. This stage moves forward a lengthy and delicate debate on a legal point of view regarding the use of Russian state assets that were blocked by Western institutions immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago. The European Union has frozen assets worth 200 billion euros belonging to…
Dmitri Medvedev told Japan on Tuesday that it should give up its territorial claims on a group of islands in the Pacific, which are part of the Kuril Islands group. “These are not disputed territories, but Russian ones,” said the vice-president of the Security Council in Moscow, commenting that “the sad samurai” can “commit seppuku if they dare”, informs Reuters, cited by Agerpres. The direct comments of Medvedev, former Russian president and current vice-president of the Russian Security Council, regarding what Moscow calls the Kuril Islands are likely to cause upset in Japan, which claims four of the southernmost islands,…
Russia will double its production of anti-aircraft missiles this year, announced on Tuesday the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, at the end of an inspection carried out at several enterprises of the Russian military industrial complex in the city of Yekaterinburg, located at the foot of the Ural Mountains, according to EFE, quoted by Agerpres. “There has been a considerable increase in production volume. Regarding the missiles we need for our air defense systems, we will have an increase of more than twice. We hope that throughout this year the program will be fully implemented,” said Shoigu, quoted by the…
The Security Service of Ukraine, known as SBU, has summoned the so-called foreign minister of Tiraspol, Vitali Ignatiev, for questioning on January 17. The separatist leader was supposed to appear at the Ukrainian authority’s Vinnytsia representation. In the meantime, the authorities in the Republic of Moldova are not aware of the fact that the Ukrainian institutions are looking for Ignatiev. The first statement on the subject was made by Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration, Oleg Serebrian, who stated that he had not seen any notifications sent to Moldovan officials. “So far, we have not received any requests from the Ukrainian…
Russia’s getting camera shy about its hardware in occupied Ukraine, notably its heavy artillery. Now, this is an old camouflage trick, but thankfully the OSCE saw through it (literally) and spotted several Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) disguised as transport trucks. Or, in this case, poorly disguised as transport trucks. This subterfuge makes it harder to spot MLRS and easier for them to be hidden closer to the front line. The above March 6th 2020 image shows 3 MLRS with metal frames and canvas sheeting used to cover the distinctive angled rocket tubes. Thankfully the sheeting had blown off one…
Russian President Vladimir Putin received a Covid-19 vaccination on Tuesday without fuss or fanfare according to the Kremlin, more than three months after qualifying to do so. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN: “Putin was vaccinated against the coronavirus. (He) feels good. Tomorrow he has a full working day.” No video or images of the vaccination process were immediately made available. Earlier, the Kremlin said it would not be a public event, unusual for a Russian leader who frequently poses for the cameras… sometimes shirtless. When asked why the Russian leader is not planning to show his vaccination process for publicity,…
The 125,000 ethnic Gagauz who live in southeastern Moldova seldom receive much press in their own right except for the fact that they are a rare Turkic people who are mostly Orthodox Christians. But they do attract broader attention when they become part of Russia’s geopolitical struggle with Turkey. Similarly, the Gagauz turn into an object of greater scrutiny when debates become more heated regarding the Moldovan central government’s possible plans to retake Russian-controlled Transnistria or integrate with Romania and the West. And when all of those issues suddenly come together, as they have at various points since 1991, Moscow…
The failure of pro-Russian Igor Dodon in the presidential elections in the Republic of Moldova does not seem to have upset the Kremlin much: instead of being reprimanded, the officer in charge of the Moldovan case (and assisting Dodon in the election campaign) was promoted in early March. At first glance, the promotion seems to be a job rotation decision, but in reality, it’s part of a broader reorganization of the departments dealing with the former Soviet space and the separatist regions supported by Moscow. Igor Maslov, the SVR colonel in the shadow of Igor Dodon The new head of…
Anyone who studies disinformation could ask why the information space contains so many hyperboles. For example, when you read about the pandemic, you cannot avoid extravagant narratives of Satan pulling the strings, or wild scenarios in which Western leaders emerge as dictators. Probably, part of the explanation is that, from the viewpoint of the receiver, the drama is seductive; people click on hyperbolic and emotional content. A recent Oxford University study also sheds light on those that spread disinformation. It found that RT TV channel, a super spreader, uses disinformation to create (political) chaos. If chaos is the goal, the means is a massive number of disinformation narratives,…