The investment, which dates back to 2011, is disclosed in the Paradise Papers — a massive leak of files detailing the offshore assets of high-profile figures and corporations around the world — and was made through Russian technology magnate Yuri Milner, like reported by euvsdisinfo.eu.

The revelations add to growing concerns over Russian influence in U.S. politics, including the publication of thousands of provocative Russian-bought ads on Facebook during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

According to the Paradise Papers, another Russian state institution, Gazprom Investholding, financed an offshore company that then funded an investment vehicle owning $1 billion in Facebook shares.

Both VTB and Gazprom are currently under U.S. sanctions.

An intense information war being waged alongside armed hostilities in Syria is affecting efforts to help victims of the conflict, a senior humanitarian official says, according to theage.com.au.

Pawel Krzysiek, the spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Syria, says there is an atmosphere of “information chaos” as adversaries spread misinformation to discredit one another using social media and other digital channels.

“This war is being conducted very heavily in cyberspace – the regular armed groups also have cyber armies,” he said. “There are multiple sources pushing their own agendas.”

Krzysiek, an Arab-speaker who has been based in Syria since 2015, said Syria’s cyber-combatants regularly “hack each other” and constantly “troll the news” in a bid to counter information disseminated by their opponents.

The result is a stream of fake news that makes it difficult to get credible information about what is really happening within Syria.

“There is a proliferation of militias and armed groups controlling places – it is really chaotic and this is all reflected in the media sphere,” he said.

The misinformation has an effect on life-saving humanitarian operations in Syria.

“It makes the humanitarian response extremely complicated,” Krzysiek said.

Aid convoys in Syria carrying emergency supplies are now routinely “broadcast live” by local observers using social media platforms such as Facebook.

“Today with citizen journalists your convoys are broadcast right away in real time … people are there on the check points filming you. All they need is a smartphone.”

Aid agencies have no control over how this type of information is portrayed by those broadcasting the images.

Krzysiek said this makes it more difficult for humanitarian organisations to give local people reliable information about the purpose of their operations.

“This is a big challenge today,” he said. “The risks are very high.”

There was international condemnation for the bombing of a 31-truck United Nations convoy carrying food, medicines and supplies bound for rebel-held areas of Syria’s western Aleppo Province in September last year.

A Syrian Arab Red Crescent worker was among 20 people killed in the attack.

“The Syrian crisis is absolutely unprecedented in terms of how many humanitarian workers have died while on duty,” Krzysiek said.

At least 65 Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers have been killed during Syria’s six-year civil war.

Pawel Krzysiek has crossed the frontlines in Syria many times, including in the besieged town of Madaya when aid convoys made it through to starving people in early 2016.

He gave the keynote address about the media’s portrayal of the Syrian conflict at the Australian Red Cross International Humanitarian Law and Journalism Symposium at Sydney University on Thursday November 2.

Mr Krzysiek said the dangerous conditions in Syria coupled with the challenges of verifying sources had made it difficult for journalists working for mainstream media organisations to accurately report events in Syria.

“It is a very tough game for the journalists covering the Syria conflict today,” he said.

The Red Cross has often played the role of a “humanitarian news agency” because of the way it has been able to verify facts for reporters, he said.

According to euvsdisinfo.eu:

1) Pro-Kremlin disinformation can look like just another news story

Claims made in pro-Kremlin fake news stories are sometimes simply taken out of the blue. This has for example been the case when it has been claimed that Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by Ukrainian armed forces, when there is overwhelming evidence that it was shot down by Russia-supported rebels. However, in most cases, pro-Kremlin disinformation stories use pre-existing knowledge and prejudice to make their fake news seem probable. One such example was the fake story about the kidnapping and rape of a 13-year-old “Lisa” in Germany by a group of newly arrived refugees. The story was spread shortly after events in Cologne, Germany, when many women had been harassed by groups of men with foreign background. That contributed to making the disinformation story about “Lisa” sound plausible.

2) It comes from Russia Today and Sputnik

RT (Russia Today) and Sputnik are the international flagships of Russia’s ongoing disinformation campaigns. Three things worth knowing about them is that they are not independent; they do not want to be impartial; and they produce fake news to promote political objectives. Also, you will never see them criticising the Russian government.

3) … and from many sites that hide their links to Russia

An example of a site that does not advertise its affiliation with RT is the YouTube channel In the Now, which makes itself popular by buying up and sharing entertaining videos with the potential to go viral. Once social media users “like” the videos, they will begin to see videos with pro-Kremlin political messaging in their feed. But also other media share, knowingly or unknowingly, narratives which include pro-Kremlin disinformation. Check out our searchable database with almost than 3,500 examples of the spread into both openly pro-Kremlin and other media.

4) They look like facts, but they are not

Making something which isn’t true sound or look convincing isn’t necessarily difficult. You can create the false impression that the Russian president is highly popular in the US by simply staging a news report from a restaurant in New York City. You can also present the popular yellow plastic duck or the fidget spinner as instruments of global US-led conspiracies to overthrow governments and hope people will believe in your conspiracy theory. At the less entertaining end of the spectrum, you can make an actor claim to be the eye-witness of a crucifixion of a child, which never happened, or you can let a news host say that a little girl has been killed, knowing perfectly well that this did not happen at all.

5) Their message is: Be afraid! You face a massive threat: from migrants, from Muslims, from invented disasters

Making use of concerns in societies about migration and religious minorities is an important part of the pro-Kremlin disinformation toolbox. Find out more about how disinformation about migrants in EU member states has been used in pro-Kremlin media in our feature story about this topic.

6) The message is: Don’t trust anyone! Especially not your media

Sowing distrust in the independence of journalism and media as such is another key message in pro-Kremlin outlets. This message makes their own bias and disinformation look normal, and at the same time, the message weakens targeted societies, as it challenges the idea that media can pursue truth on behalf of all of society and make society a better place. RT (Russia Today) leads by example: Investigations into RT’s target audiences have shown that these at one point even begin to appreciate RT being “open about lying”.

7) Why? “To challenge democratic values and divide Europe”

The wording that the aim of pro-Kremlin disinformation is “to challenge democratic values” and “divide Europe” is taken from a resolution passed by the European Parliament. We know that the disinformation campaign is centrally coordinated by Russia’s authorities and that it inscribes itself into fundamental thinking in Russia’s military. We know quite a lot about in which ways the Russian authorities exercise control over the disinformation messaging in the media they control, or which are loyal to them.

You can stay updated about pro-Kremlin disinformation, its messages and methods and what is being done to push back, by following the work of EU’s East Stratcom Task Force on Facebook, on Twitter, on our website and by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, the Disinformation Review. Finally, you can support us in our work by volunteering to report cases of disinformation to our database.

“The global imperium of liberal capitalism has crashed into another imperium alike: the Islamic State. I do not place them exactly on the same shelf, but essentially they are close to each other, as both are based on ideology.”

President of the Institute of National Strategy Mikhail Remizov, 22.10.2017, Source: Grani.ru

President Putin’s speech interpreted: Russia as a victim of “Washington’s unfair play”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s address at the annual Valdai Club conference was the most discussed topic on Russia’s TV last week, like reported by euvsdisinfo.eu.

It was referred to as a “Munich 2” and compared to the speech Putin made at the Munich security conference in Germany 2007.

Russia’s strengthening international role in the future was praised in the political talk shows: Russia is “acting as the global arbiter warning others and making them listen”, “the question is who will rule the world in the 21^st century, the US and the West or the East”.

A juxtaposition between the West exercising double standards and dictating to others what to do – that would lead mankind to chaos and is now manifested in the degradation of international institutions and contempt of international law – and Russia as an “effective alternative” and “a constructive, reasonable and responsible approach to international policy” was constantly underlined.

A view that Russian government believes that the US and Russia should make a deal based on the principles of the 1945 Yalta conference agreements is expressed on one of the talk shows – the aim is to “divide the world and spheres of influence”, when Russia should actually “ensure change of power, division of powers, independent courts and respect for private property”.

“The idea of Putin’s speech at the Valdai conference is: Already for 100 years there is a great revolution going on in Russia, and we offer the world to use our invaluable revolutionary experience”

Writer Alexander Prokhanov, 22.10.2107, Source: Grani.ru

1917 revolution: “Warning against trying to use violence”

The 100th anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution was finally the focus of the talk show “60 minut” on TV channel Rossiya 1. Official Russia has shown a demonstrative lack of interest in the anniversary that appears to be too controversial form the Kremlin’s point of view.

During the debate, the West is accused of trying to impose its own vision of the revolution on Russia. The leader of the Communist Party Gennady Zyuganov states that “the whole world” is marking the 100th anniversary of the Great Revolution, but the other voices expressed say the revolution was a disaster for Russia, and Vladimir Lenin is brand as a traitor and a German spy.

The broadcast time is also used for alerting the people about the threat of the revolution: “It should be a lesson for our young people, and a warning against trying to use violence as a solution to social problems”.

Pressure is piling up on Moscow-based U.S. media outlets, with reports that Russia is putting together a media blacklist in retaliation for a U.S. probe into RT and Sputnik. Both these Russian state-funded media organisations have been accused of spreading disinformation, like reported by euvsdisinfo.eu.

Citing a source in the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, the RBC television channel reported on October 17 that the Council had drafted a proposal to list U.S. media outlets operating in Moscow as “undesirable.”

These include CNN; Radio Free Europe’s Russian service, known in Russian as Radio Svoboda; Current Time, a Russian-language cable news network launched by Radio Free Europe; Idel Realii, a Russian-language website run by Radio Free Europe’s Tatar-Bashkir service; and Voice of America.

Threatening Letter

The proposal was drafted by a committee set up in June at the Federation Council to “protect national sovereignty” and counter what it describes as Western meddling. The blacklist will reportedly be sent to the Justice Ministry after the committee’s next session on October 23.

Committee member Oleg Morozov told RBC that the targeted media outlets “interfered in Russia’s internal affairs.”

U.S.-sponsored media have been in Moscow’s crosshairs for years, and reports of a blacklist came just days after the same outlets received a letter from the Russian Ministry of Justice threatening to brand them “foreign agents” and slap them with restrictions.

‘Set of Measures’

Responding to the letter, Current Time director Daisy Sindelar said her team had “no concrete information about any moves being taken against RT in the United States” and therefore had “no reason to expect reciprocal action.”

To further muddy the waters, the Federation Council’s committee on national sovereignty is now denying putting together a blacklist – while hinting at possible amendments to Russian media laws.

“We didn’t draft any lists,” said Andrei Klimov, the head of the committee. “We asked agencies to prepare a set of measures in possible response to the discrimination of Russian media on U.S. territory, and to ask us in case something is missing in the current legislation.”

A former Washington correspondent for Sputnik, Russia’s state-sponsored news agency, says he received a 103-page handbook instructing reporters to “stay true to the national interest of the Russian Federation”, like reported by euvsdisinfo.eu.

The English-language set of guidelines reportedly asks journalists to “maintain allegiance” to Russia and “inform the international audience about Russia’s political, economic, and ideological stance on both local and global issues.”

The handbook was included in thousands of internal Sputnik messages handed by former Washington correspondent Andrew Feinberg to the FBI as part of its investigation into the outlet’s possible violations of U.S. law.

Sputnik broadcasts online in more than 30 languages. It stands accused of being a Kremlin mouthpiece and a major tool of disinformation. French President Emmanuel Macron has been one of its fiercest critics, describing Sputnik and RT as “lying propaganda” and denying both outlets accreditation during his election campaign.

Every year, Russian television celebrates itself and its celebrities at a ceremony where awards are presented to the industry’s most acknowledged professionals. Just like the Emmy Awards in the US, the Russian show, known as the TEFI Awards, is broadly publicised in the media. This year, prizes were presented to hosts and shows which turned out have one particular feature in common: Impressive track records in spreading disinformation, like reported by euvsdisinfo.eu.

The Russian independent outlet The Insider was the first to present highlights from the TEFI winners’ back catalogue of fake news stories. Here we share some of The Insider’s examples and add highlights from our own reporting, including results from searches made in our own new publicly available database of almost 3,500 examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation.

“Vesti Nedeli “, this year’s TEFI winner in the category “Best analytical programme”, is broadcast by the state-owned Rossiya-1 and hosted by EU-sanctioned Dmitry Kiselev. The winning story was a fragment from a documentary, which investigates opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s alleged ties to foreign enemies of Russia. However, documents presented in the programme turned out to be completely forged by Rossiya-1; they included embarrassing linguistic mistakes in English language documents – for example referring to what should have been “developed countries” as “developing countries”.

Click here for other examples of disinformation appearing in the Vesti Nedeli show and which have been reported to the Disinformation Review database. The list includes e.g. the claim that Poland was the initiator of WWII; that the West is preparing the script for an invented “chemical attack by Assad” in Syria; and that Ukraine’s visa-free regime with the EU aims at converting Ukrainians into slaves.

“Vremya” on state-controlled Pervy Kanal won in the category “Best news programme”. It was the Vremya programme whose correspondent in Berlin brought details of the infamous disinformation story about “Lisa” to Russian homes with this report.

Click here for other examples of disinformation appearing on Pervy Kanal and which have been reported to the Disinformation Review database. The list includes e.g. the claim that Daesh fighters are in fact American mercenaries and Daesh was created by the US; that Kyiv has developed a plan for genocide of the population of Donbas; and that Ukraine is in fact a part of Russia.

REN TV, a third Russian nation-wide television broadcaster, was probably proud that one of its hosts, Igor Prokopenko, won the award for “Best educational programme” for a show called “Voennaya Tayna” (“Military Secret”). However, Mr. Prokopenko is also the man behind a number of other REN TV broadcasts, such as this one where it is argued that the world is flat, and another documentary called “Europe is the kingdom of gays“.

Click here for other examples of disinformation appearing on REN TV  and which have been reported to the Disinformation Review database. The list includes e.g. the claim that paedophilia is common among US politicians; that gay politicians are being installed in Europe, who break children’s psyche and force them to change sex; and that the 9/11 terror attacks in the US were in fact organised by US intelligence agencies.

Finally, Vladimir Solovyov of Rossiya-1 was awarded the prize for this year’s best interviewer. Solovyov, who has recently found his alleged villa in Italy under the scrutiny of the Russian corruption hunter Alexey Navalny, hosts one of the most watched talk shows on Russian television. As we have described in a feature article about talk shows such as Mr Solovyov’s on Russian television, their aim is both to legitimise mobbing and marginalisation of dissidents, and to spread disinformation.

Click here for examples of disinformation appearing on Mr Solovyov’s show and which have been reported to the Disinformation Review database. The list includes e.g. the claim that the UN Security Council has stated that Russia has not waged any aggression against Ukraine; that Russia is the only country in the world that fights terrorism; and that Crimea simply decided its own fate when it was annexed by Russia.

In the pro-Kremlin disinformation news cycle, timing is everything.  Every occasion can be used to amplify and strengthen the false message, like reported by euvsdisinfo.eu.

This week’s opportunity occurred when the separatist officials of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic handed over “human remains and debris” from the MH17 to the Dutch investigators. One may say with good reason it took some time: Malaysian Airlines flight was shot down over Eastern Ukraine three years ago, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

As we have noticed, Russian media and state officials have spread at least eight different versions of the catastrophe, all pointing away from the Russian liability which has been clearly stated by the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team.

Now we see a ninth falsehood. It was published by the Russian Ministry of Defense TV channel Zvezda, claiming “a former major of the Ukrainian army”, Yuri Baturin, witnessed the plane shot down by a Ukrainian Buk. Later Zvezda removed the report but it’s easily available cached. The job was done – the story was spread by dozens of news websites both in Russian and in English.

Another report on TV channel Rossiya 1 – that was not deleted – consolidated the false narrative that the BUK was launched from an area under the Ukrainian Army’s control. For debunks, see here.

Fictitious organ trade

Just like the false theories on MH17, some of the most absurd lies on Ukraine have a multi-year track-record in the pro-Kremlin disinformation operation.

So we heard that Ukraine’s Health Ministry allows dead Ukrainians to be sold for organs; that the country is to be turned into an international black market transplant centre for wealthy foreigners; and, once again, that there is no evidence of Russian tanks in Ukraine.

Last but not least we heard that tens of thousands of Ukrainian weapons are smuggled into Poland with the purpose of building an underground Ukrainian army.

False fight for the right values

Circumstances in Georgia give a solid example of how pro-Kremlin messaging can be customized to local audiences across Europe. Here, the disinformation machine focuses on the conspiracies of the “rotten” Western values. This week we heard that homosexuality is dispersed throughout Georgia, that it is comparable to cannibalism, and that a range of different techniques are used to bestialise Georgian citizens. For debunk see here.

Also in Georgia appeared a new version of an old narrative. The story goes that when Carl Bildt was Foreign Minister of Sweden, he said that Orthodoxy was the main enemy of the West “as it tries to regulate family relations and does not recognise gays and transgenders”. Just like with the case of disinformation on Ukraine, this fabrication was first debunked already three years ago.

Finally, Russian TV’s conspiracy campaign claiming that the US is not fighting Daesh but supporting it show no signs of stopping. We learned that Daesh is a project of the United States; that Daesh fighters are the mercenaries of the US; and that the all-mighty West and the US have created the Islamist ideology and Islamist networks.

While the Russian speaking TV audience is kept occupied with accusations against the US, the Russian Ministry of Defense has not made too much noise with its announcement that there have been no Russian air strikes targeting Syrian Democratic Forces or civilians. Reports from human rights monitors in any case suggest the opposite.

Quack-quack! In most of the world, the popular yellow plastic duck is associated with children playing in a bathtub. But in Russia, it’s a different story, like reported by euvsdisinfo.eu. Authorities in the city of Izhevsk have turned down a request from the opposition to hold a rally because… well, because the protestors planned to bring along such ducks to the rally, and according to the authorities, “Western intelligence centres” created the toy “as a symbol of revolution and the illegal overthrow of the state”. The story was described in detail by Meduza.

The fact is that supporters of opposition politician Alexey Navalny do use the duck as a meme to represent Navalny’s team’s alleged findings of luxurious property owned by Russia’s prime minister. Probably in an attempt to justify the decision to turn down the application to hold the rally, authorities in Izhevsk found it necessary to add this layer of conspiracy theory about the yellow duck as instrumental in a global Western-led clandestine operation to overthrow governments.

It is not the first time authorities in Russia develop these kinds of claims. As we earlier reported, the popular fidget spinner has been described on Russian state TV as a part of a conspiracy against the Kremlin. Russian television has also explained that the Pokemon Go game was in fact created by foreign secret services as a tool for global espionage. Entertainment for adults can also be dangerous: As we described last week, an upcoming comedy by Armando Iannucci has been described as “planned provocation” against Russia.

Social-media companies in Germany now face fines of up to 50 million euros if they fail to remove fake news or posts containing hate speech within 24 hours, like reported by euvsdisinfo.eu.

We have reported on the Network Enforcement Act, commonly referred to as the “Facebook law”, before, and on October 1 it came into force. It will focus on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other sites with more than 2 million users in Germany.

The penalties apply only within Germany’s borders but German Justice Minister Heiko Maas, the driving force behind the law, said he would press for similar measures across the European Union.

The law, one of the world’s toughest attempts to control content on social media, has faced criticism from free-speech advocates. But German officials argue that social-media companies are not acting quickly enough to check posts when they receive a complaint and delete offending content.

The law allows social-media companies to task external experts with checking their content for fake news.

Under the new rules, social networks are also required to publish a report every six months listing the complaints they received and explaining how they handled them.

The “Facebook law” was drafted following a series of prominent fake news scandals in Germany.

In the most famous case, Russian media and officials voiced outrage after an ethnic Russian girl in Germany claimed she was raped by Middle Eastern refugees, a claim she eventually admitted to have made up. The incident had prompted a diplomatic row between Berlin and Moscow.