DISINFO: The US and EU provided modest assistance to Italy, contrary to Russia
SUMMARY
Russian military doctors have provided Italy with effective assistance in the fight against coronavirus. This was expected to excite Moscow’s “partners” from NATO structures, because the assistance rendered to Rome by the United States or Europe seemed, to put it mildly, modest.
RESPONSE
A recurring pro-Kremlin narrative that the EU left Italy alone to fight coronavirus. The COVID-19 outbreak constituted a serious challenge on Europe's readiness for a crisis and was politically exploited by anti-EU forces, including official Russian media. The European Central Bank announced a €750 billion ($820 billion) asset purchase programme in an effort to help mitigate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, as the death toll in Europe continued to rise. As part of the programme, investors will purchase Italian securities to help the country counter the serious risks of the coronavirus. Individual EU members have also provided assistance to Italy specifically, including access to a hundred intensive care beds (Austria and Germany), 500 mobile medical units (Greece), 2.5 million masks (Austria and France), 30,000 protective suits (Czechia and France), 300 ventilators (Germany), as well as 50 medical personnel (Poland, Romania, and non-member Norway). On the 26th of April, Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said that a recovery fund to help EU countries weather the coronavirus’ economic impact should be worth €1.5 trillion and be available by mid-September. NATO has also been doing a lot to assist all its member states in the fight against COVID-19. This includes facilitating the airlift of crucial medical supplies and equipment, matching requests for support with offers from allies and partners, setting up field hospitals. Many allies, including Czechia, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain have benefited from this support. The coordination and delivery of urgently needed medical supplies, such as personal protective equipment, respirators and test kits, was organised by NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) following requests by allies and partner countries. For example, in response to Spain and Italy’s requests for assistance made through the EADRCC, Czechia bilaterally provided both countries with medical supplies, including 10,000 protective medical suits each. Through the same mechanism, Turkey provided Italy and Spain with medical supplies such as masks, personal protection equipment and disinfectants. Read similar cases claiming that Italy is alone in defending itself from coronavirus, without any help from hypocritical EU and that the EU left Italy face to face with an invisible and terrible enemy.