CTRC tells about trends in spreading fake information about NATO in the occupied Crimea

On Tuesday, November 8, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center held a presentation titled “Fakes about NATO in the Occupied Crimea” at the Ukrinform news agency, during which speakers spoke about the trends in the spread of fake information about NATO in the temporarily occupied Crimea in September-October 2022.

Speakers:

Eskender Bariiev – Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, Chairman of the Department of Legal Affairs and Foreign Affairs of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People

Serhii Parkhomenko – Manager of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center

Moderator: Tetiana Podvorniak – Communications Manager of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center.

“We would like to remind you that the Crimean Tatar Resource Center has previously launched a new section “NATO in the media of the occupied Crimea”, which aims to track fakes in the temporarily occupied Crimea about the values, goals and current activities of NATO and refute this information,” said Podvorniak.

The communications manager noted that there are already some results of the campaign, as the publications in social media have reached more than 400 thousand people, many of whom are Crimean residents.

“Most of the propaganda in the Crimean media is about NATO. For years, Russia has been intimidating the population of the peninsula, equating the alliance with fascism. Starting in 2014, Russian authorities began openly calling NATO an enemy and accusing it of threats. Since then, the Russian Federation has been actively spreading Putin’s propaganda that NATO is coming to the borders of Russia, etc.,” Bariiev noted.

The expert spoke in detail about the main fakes about NATO in the occupied Crimea and highlighted the main trends in September-October 2022:

1. Russia is trying to convince Russians more that NATO is attacking Russia due to the success of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
2. Russia is again changing its rhetoric to justify the outbreak of war against Ukraine.
3. Russia is increasingly preparing its society for provocative actions (terrorist attacks) on its territory, as well as for the possibility of using nuclear weapons.
4. Russian occupation media continue to deliberately refer to the NATO political and military alliance as a military bloc.

“NATO is one of the key topics in the media of the temporarily occupied Crimea, as well as in the media throughout Russia. The Russian authorities are slowly preparing an explanation for the military defeat by saying that Russia was not at war with Ukraine, but with NATO,” noted Parkhomenko.

Parkhomenko emphasized that among the media outlets that publish and promote fakes are: the Crimean branch of RIA Novosti, Komsomolskaia Pravda, and Krym 24. Media outlets in Telegram: News of Crimea, Crimean News, Sevastopol. Krym. News, Sevastopol News, etc.

According to the expert, the rhetoric of Russian propagandists is constantly changing. So far, Russian propaganda has been saying that NATO is forcibly dragging Ukraine into its fold in order to build a network of bases near the border with Russia. But now, it seems, the aggressor state’s information field is frantically trying to come up with an explanation for why Ukraine has not yet been accepted into the Alliance, claiming that NATO considers Ukraine a ‘disposable’ tool for war with Russia.