On Thursday, October 12, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center at the Ukrinform news agency held a presentation on the topic Fakes about NATO in occupied Crimea, during which speakers spoke about the trends in the spread of fake information in temporarily occupied Crimea for July-October 2023.
The speakers were:
Eskender Bariiev – Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, Head of the Department of Legal Affairs and Foreign Affairs of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People
Serhii Parkhomenko – Manager of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center
Oleh Remizov – Russian-language digital content specialist in the Public Diplomacy Directorate of the NATO HQ
Moderator: Tetiana 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 temporarily occupied territories, including Crimea”,- said Tetiana Savchuk.
The CTRC communications manager added that fakes in the media of the 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 70 fakes, which reached more than 800 thousand people”,- Tetiana noted.
Eskender Bariiev noted that in July-October the number of widespread fakes about NATO did not decrease compared to previous periods. Mentions of NATO in the context of Crimea during the reporting monitoring period tend to increase. This is due to regular attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on military installations of the Russian Federation on the occupied peninsula. Propaganda tries to explain this with NATO’s intentions to destroy peaceful life on the peninsula.
“The dominant propaganda clichés about NATO are: NATO is a fascist organization, NATO is a military-political bloc, NATO army, NATO fleet, NATO bases, NATO weapons. In this context, individual NATO states are also mentioned, in particular the USA and Great Britain, which are allegedly preparing for a direct clash with the Russian Federation and provoking escalation”,- he added.
The generators of fakes are dominated by Russian officials (Medvedev, Zakharova) and collaborators (Konstantinov, Aksenov, Saldo), who were appointed to positions in the occupation administrations. And among the media that actively spread fakes about NATO, the TV channel CRIMEA24, electronic publications RIA NEWS CRIMEA, NEWS FEED CRIMEA, ForPost Sevastopol, Komsomol Truth, telegram channels Zarya | NEWS| Sevastopol| CRIMEA, NEW CRIMEA, CRIMEA 24, telegram channels of Crimean collaborators, in particular, the self-proclaimed speaker of the Crimean parliament”Konstantinov.
“All this may indicate that the Russian Federation does not really expect to independently persuade Ukraine to a peace agreement and expects to ensure that it is the West that will force Ukraine to sit down at the negotiating table. For this, various hybrid methods are used, including various IPSOs, including information campaigns to intimidate the West with escalation. Thus, the Kremlin hopes that NATO and EU states will begin to insist on negotiations between Ukraine and the aggressor”,- Bariiev emphasized.
Serhii Parkhomenko noted that the Russian Federation is constantly strengthening its IPSO, which is aimed at discrediting NATO, and also emphasizes the non-subjectivity of the Ukrainian state. Russia convinces Crimeans that Ukraine is completely dependent on Brussels and Washington. All this information pressure from the aggressor state is directed at Western partners.
“The number of meaningless fakes from the Russian Federation is constantly growing, but they are quite monotonous and typical. Recently, in the telegram channel “Crimea News Feed” it was published that Russia allegedly destroyed the headquarters of NATO special forces, but we know that such a concept does not exist at all, because there are only special forces of individual NATO member states. “I will emphasize that not a single NATO member state and its security forces are participating in the Russian-Ukrainian war”,- he added.
Oleg Remizov added that the main goal of the Kremlin disinformation on NATO is to sow discord within the alliance itself and undermine the trust of Western citizens in democratic institutions.
“NATO fights Russian disinformation with facts and openness to the media and the public. Our approach includes: understanding and analyzing the information environment, exposing major cases of disinformation, proactive communication and supporting social resilience”,- he emphasized.