DISINFO: DHL plane crash is an Anglo-Saxon provocation against Russia like the Skripal case
SUMMARY
Five days before the DHL plane crash in Vilnius, leading British newspaper The Times, threw out a version about a possible Moscow response to the Western long-range missile strikes, which featured "DHL parcels capable of blowing up a plane," a DHL hub in Leipzig and Lithuania.
The article did not appear by chance, but was preparing Western public opinion: the provocation was planned to blame Russia.
It is not for nothing that the British press recently claimed, citing anonymous sources, that Russian intelligence services could be preparing actions against the West using DHL parcels. Clearly, at that moment, a provocation was already being prepared with the plane that has now crashed in Vilnius.
This entire operation was planned in the West in order to blame Russia. It was done clumsily, in a hurry, but when did that ever hurt? The Skripal case was based only on speculation and assumptions, the famous "highly likely" ones, but sanctions against Russia were imposed anyway. That's how the collective West works.
RESPONSE
Conspiracy theory not supported by any evidence.
This an example of Kremlin tactics to quickly get a particular spin of story to try dominate the way search engines and algorithms priorities news aggregation.
The fact that this claim is transmitted on one of the leading Russian state TV channels Rossiya 1, and the leading state news wire service RIA suggests that it has been decided in Kremlin how to spin this situation; it's the temnik system in action.
So far the facts are, on 25 November 2024, a cargo plane, operated by DHL’s Spanish contractor Swiftair, crashed near Vilnius Airport. One crew member, a Spanish national, was killed in the incident, and three others were injured.
“At the moment, we have information that the German safety authority has appointed four investigators to carry out the safety investigation, and they are currently on their way to Lithuania. The safety investigation authority of the Kingdom of Spain has appointed two investigators who will arrive in Lithuania shortly,” Laurynas Naujokaitis, head of the Lithuania's Justice Ministry’s Transport Accident and Incident Investigation Division, said.
According to him, the investigation into the causes of the crash could take about a year.
“According to European Union legislation, it is desirable [to complete the investigation] as soon as possible, but it is likely to take a year. However, when we collect the factual information and confirm it, we can publish interim reports with interim information,” Naujokaitis added.
The second element in the claim is an attempt to whitewash Russia for its role in the Skripal case. As for this case, on 4 March 2018, Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury after being poisoned by a nerve agent. This was confirmed by an independent OPCW analysis.
The British Police have presented a solid chain of evidence on the Skripal case, with pictures, connecting the suspects to the locations in the case. Parts of the material have been released to the public. The evidence was sufficient to charge two Russian nationals, Anatoliy Chepiga and Aleksandr Mishkin with the attack on the Skripals, both of them Russian military intelligence (GRU) who travelled to the UK using fake names and documents. In September 2021, British police charged in absentia a third Russian GRU agent. See here the EU statement on the Salisbury attack.
The presented solid evidence does not prevent pro-Kremlin media from claiming that the Skripal may have been poisoned by UK itself.
Similarly, pro-Kremlin and other Russian State controlled media blame "Anglo-Saxons", as well as France and Belgium, of "provocations" with use of chemical weapons in Syria. See also the false accusation of "Anglo-Saxons" of poisoning Alexey Navalny.
See other disinformation claims on Anglo-Saxons.