On Wednesday, December 13, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center at the Ukrinform news agency held a presentation on the topic “Fakes about NATO inthe occupied Crimea” during which speakers spoke about the trends in the spread of fake information in the temporarily occupied Crimea about NATO for 2023.
The speakers were:
Eskender Bariiev – Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, head of the department for legal issues and foreign affairs of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people;
Serhii Parkhomenko – Manager of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center;
Vineta Kleine – Director of the NATO Information and Documentation Centre.
Moderator: Tatyana Savchuk – Communications manager of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center.
“The spread of fakes is extremely dangerous. With the help of fake news, you can not only manipulate people’s opinions, but also start a whole war! Thus, fakes, disinformation and propaganda are the main tools of the Russian Federation, which it has been operating for decades, unfortunately, in the temporarily occupied territories, including Crimea”,- said Tetiana Savchuk.
The CTRC communications manager added that fakes in the media of occupied Crimea are absolutely not a new phenomenon. Now the CTRC sees the importance of tracking and debunking fakes about NATO, given the high relevance of this topic.
“In general, the CTRC has already published more than 80 fakes, which reached more than 600 thousand people”,- Tatyana noted.
Eskender Bariiev noted that globally, the occupation media constantly emphasized the NATO threat, on the fact that Russia is de facto fighting not with Ukraine, but with NATO, that the Alliance is provoking a third world war.
“Most of the fakes constantly contained the stamps NATO troops, NATO bloc, NATO fleet, NATO special forces etc. The occupation media emphasized the non-subjectivity of Ukraine and noted that Ukraine is controlled from Washington and Brussels”,- he added.
Bariiev also noted that propaganda in one of the periods, namely during the Alliance summit, was actively engaged in self-denial and produced fakes that are difficult to explain even with its own logic: if before the summit and after it, propagandists said that Ukraine’s entry into the Alliance represents a real threat and therefore it is necessary to continue the SMO, then during the summit messages began to be actively circulated that NATO will not accept Ukraine, The Alliance does not need Ukraine, and Ukraine was denied accession.
Manager of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center Serhii Parkhomenko told who most widespread fake information about NATO in the occupied Crimea.
“If we are talking about Russian regional media in Crimea, that is, occupation ones, among the largest propagandists are: Komsomol Truth in Crimea, RIA News Crimea, TV channel Crimea 24, various telegram channels, for example: Crimea News streamline , which has the largest flow of fakes, also News of Crimea, EE Crimea, EE Sevastopol and others. Fakes are actively spreading on the pages of so-called Russian experts, bloggers, officials and collaborators”,- he explained.
Serhii Parkhomenko appealed to representatives of leading Ukrainian media so that they do not circulate Russian fakes about NATO.
“We kindly ask you not to reproduce various statements that contain all sorts of nonsense. By talking about some Russian narratives, quoting Russian bloggers, experts, officials, you contribute to their promotion”,- he emphasized.
Mrs. Vineta Kleine noted that Russian aggression continues not only on earth or in the sky, but also online, that is, in the information space.
“The public diplomacy unit supports this project, because we want to track what fakes are spreading on the temporarily occupied peninsula. It has always been important to NATO that information about the alliance’s activities is based on clear and transparent facts. NATO bases its communications on facts that are reliable. We are happy to engage the media and others to disseminate reliable information about NATO”,- she added.
Let us recall that the Crimean Tatar Resource Center previously launched the column NATO in the media of occupied Crimea, which aims to track fakes in temporarily occupied Crimea about the values, goals and current activities of NATO and refute this information.
This project is being implemented with the support of the NATO Information and Documentation Centre.