DISINFO: Report on the situation of Covid-19 in Russia aims to discredit the Sputnik V vaccine
SUMMARY
There is a new Cold War in international media in these times of the coronavirus pandemic. A CNN report about the “Covid-19 reality in Russia”, showing packed morgues, overcrowded hospitals and relatives pleading for medical assistance, doesn’t look like a normal story but a denunciation of the Russian authorities. Its aim is to show once again that Russia is not a reliable partner if it is tricking us even with the figures of deaths from Covid-19. And this happens at a key moment of the pandemic, when Russia invited the Europeans to produce its Sputnik V vaccine. It seems evident that the goal of the CNN report is to discredit Russia and its efforts in the fight against the novel coronavirus, when we are reaching the final stage in the race to achieve a reliable vaccine against it.
RESPONSE
Recurrent disinformation about an alleged anti-Russian bias in international media, this time presented as an effort to prevent the success of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine. No evidence is provided to support the claim that the goal of the article is to discredit the Russian authorities and present them as an unreliable partner. Many of the affirmations in the CNN story about overcrowded hospitals and suspicions that mortality figures are higher than the official ones have been independently confirmed by other outlets, such as Canada’s CBS and the UK’s The Guardian.
This is part of a disinformation campaign launched after approval of the Sputnik V vaccine was met with scepticism and criticism, even by Russian specialists in the country. See other examples in our database, such as claims that Western attacks on the Russian coronavirus vaccine are a corporate Cold War against humanity; that the UK launched a smear campaign against it; that the US and the EU face multiple deaths out of fear of admitting Russia’s success against coronavirus; that the WHO confirmed that the Sputnik V was on Phase 3 of clinical testing already in August 2020; that the WHO and Microsoft sabotaged the Russian vaccine; that Europe is turning to Russia due to its desperate need for a vaccine; or that the West criticises the Sputnik V because it can’t accept Russia’s primacy and because its pharmaceutical companies will lose billions of dollars.