DISINFO: Other “Novichok” scandals will be staged to stop the Nord Stream 2
SUMMARY
The Russian-Czech scandal around the expulsion of diplomats and accusations of Moscow in participation in the 2014 military warehouse explosions gave a new life to the topic of information sabotage and provocations against Russia. In the nearest months, the Nord Stream-2 pipeline will become the centre of these provocations. In order to prevent this project from completion, it is necessary to create even louder hysteria around a new “poisoning”. To this end, “Novichok” should appear on the streets of one of the countries actively fighting against the Russian-German pipeline.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative denying the participation of the Russian special services in the Vrbetice ammunition explosion in Czechia and the use of the “Novichok” nerve agent against Navalny and Skripal. This message promotes the idea that foreign countries try to achieve their goals (in this case, stopping the completion of Nord Stream 2) through various anti-Russian provocations.
The investigation by Czech authorities established beyond doubt that GRU agents Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin, the same individuals considered responsible for the attempted murder of Sergey Skripal in Salisbury in 2018, were behind the explosion in an ammunition storage depot in the Czech location of Vrbetice in 2014, which killed two people. Prague’s findings were independently corroborated in the course of an investigation jointly conducted by Bellingcat, The Insider (Russia), Der Spiegel (Germany), and Respekt.cz (Czech Republic).
Pro-Kremlin coverage of the Vrbetice incident resembles Moscow’s standard approach to damage control in the face of incriminating evidence: knee-jerk denial of wrongdoing, attribution of the charges to Western Russophobia, and mass production of “alternative explanations.”
Read more about the Russian disinformation on the Skripal poisoning and the Navalny poisoning.
See other cases connected to the Vrbetice explosion: No evidence of Moscow’s involvement in the 2014 Vrbetice explosion; Allegations of the Russian role in Vrbetice explosion part of Russophobic smear campaign and Prague blocked information about Belarus coup by raising the issue of ammo depot explosion.