EU: countering disinformation, pro-Kremlin fake news exposed. Medvedev, “Nazi Europe, like Mengele”

Pro-Kremlin media outlets continue to spread fake news about Europe and its support for Ukraine. Russian websites accuse the EU of being “Nazi” since it supports Kyiv which “is Nazi”. This is according to the EUvsDisinfo newsletter by the European External Action Service (EEAS) Task Force on Disinformation. In particular, Russian media outlets “accuse Western allies of supporting the Nazis during World War II and praise Russia for its false claim of having established an anti-colonial Soviet Union”. The Kremlin also reacted to the speech by the EU High Representative, Josep Borrell, on Russian interference and information manipulation at the EU conference on disinformation on 7 February. On his African mission, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Russian TV channels that “Borrell, and by extension the EU, is racist (apart from Nazi) and that Russia is carrying the torch from the Soviet Union by promoting de-colonisation, just like in the 1960s”. The deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, spread fake news about the EU-Ukraine summit, and “labelled Presidents Zelenskyy and Ursula von der Leyen as ‘patient and doctor at a narcological ward’ while also comparing Europe to ‘the Nazi Doctor Josef Mengele now with a plan to kill Ukraine’”. Medvedev’s speech triggered “over a half-million views and then inspired a flood of similar content on other pro-Kremlin platforms”.
Valentina Bombelli