Eight years after being violently and illegally annexed by Russia, Crimea is still one of the main targets of pro-Kremlin disinformation. More than 840 cases in the EUvsDisinfo database are a testament of continuous efforts to portray the Kremlin as a “saviour” of Crimea and to justify the illegal annexation. These disinfo examples spread across many countries and languages: 437 are in Russian, 143 in Arabic, 79 in English, 42 in French, and more in other languages. The European Union has reiterated(opens in a new tab) its position that it does not and will not recognise the illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula(opens in a new tab) by the Russian Federation. In this context, disinformation and continuous attempts to whitewash the Kremlin’s deeds violating international law is the only way to get some sort of approval from audiences – both domestic and international. We’ve analysed four types of the most common narratives poisoning the information environment since 2014. Not surprisingly, Putin has also used many of the toxic narratives presented below to justify the on-going unprovoked military attack against Ukraine (see also here and here).
via euvsdisvision: CRIMEA: EIGHT YEARS AFTER RUSSIA’S VIOLENT, ILLEGAL ANNEXATION, STILL DESPERATELY SEEKING RECOGNITION