DISINFO: US very likely to deploy banned arms in Europe to provoke West-Russia tensions
SUMMARY
There are reasons to assume that the US striking forces, previously banned by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, are highly likely to be deployed in the Pacific Rim and Europe to provoke tensions. Such a decision will inevitably lead to an arms race, a growth of the conflict potential will increase the probability of incidents.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative casting US and Western foreign policymaking as a series of provocations against the always-benign (but very powerful) Russia. The claim is unsupported by any evidence and relies on false precision to give the claim a coat of factuality. Russian officials and state media routinely prophesy oddly specific Western "provocations" against Russia which, for reasons unknown, never come to fruition. In 2019 alone, pro-Kremlin outlets said that NATO would kill its own officers to provoke a new conflict in Ukraine; that the UK would use its chemical labs to kill even more Russians; that the US was planning an anti-Russian operation in the Black Sea; that Canada was also planning an anti-Russian operation in the Black Sea; that NATO would intervene in Crimea to rig the Ukrainian presidential election. See here for our explainer on the importance of paranoia in disinformation.