DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS
- Outlet: arabic.rt.com ( archive, original ) , akhbarak.net ( archive, original ) , watira.com ( archive, original ) , ru4arab.ru ( archive, original ) , rtarab.com ( archive, original ) , Khabar Masr ( archive, original ) , kachaf.com ( archive, original ) , newhub.org ( archive, original ) , alaan.org ( archive, original ) , newsformy.com ( archive, original ) , shamra.sy ( archive, original ) , kol-masr.com ( archive, original ) , lomazoma.com ( archive, original ) , eltakrer.com ( archive, original ) , algerie9.com ( archive, original ) , sahafaty.com ( archive, original ) , dowwar.com ( archive, original ) , alderaah-news.net ( archive, original )
- Date of publication: September 05, 2020
- Countries / regions discussed: Germany, Russia
AI translations:
DISINFO: Germany provided no evidence for the hypothesis that Navalny was poisoned with Novichok
SUMMARY
The German government announced that the country’s defence ministry experts had reached the conclusion that the Russian activist [Navalny] had been poisoned with a substance from the Novichok group, but no evidence has yet been presented to confirm this hypothesis.
RESPONSE
This is a recurrent disinformation narrative denying all the facts related to the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The use of multiple and simultaneous versions about an event involving questionable actions by the Russian government or its allies, in order to confound citizens about the actual truth, is a recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation strategy, already seen in the cases of the MH17 downing, the illegal annexation of Crimea, the murder attempt against Sergei and Yulia Skripal or chemical attacks in Syria. The Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny fell ill during a flight and was initially hospitalised in Omsk. Later he was transferre to Berlin and is receiving treatment at Berlin's Charite Hospital. The German federal government said that toxicological tests provided “unequivocal evidence of a chemical nerve agent of the Novichok group” in the blood samples of Alexei Navalny. The European Union condemned poisoning of Alexei Navalny in the strongest possible terms.