The head of the British Foreign Office decided to create a center to combat “Russian disinformation” in Ukraine According to Liz Truss, since the beginning of the month, 40 cases of dissemination of false data by Russia on the Ukrainian issue have been identified. London is working with allies to ensure that Moscow “does not make statements that are not true”
Liz Truss
Great Britain to set up a Government Information Cell (GIC) to fight “Russian disinformation” on the situation around Ukraine. Foreign Minister Liz Truss announced this, according to the Mail on Sunday.
“At the end of the Cold War, we disbanded our information division, but Russia did not disband its own, so we were faced with Russian disinformation for many years,” — the minister said.
Truss said London is responding to Moscow's actions and working with allies “to ensure that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin cannot continue to make statements that are not true.”
Since the beginning of February, according to the head of the Foreign Ministry, 40 cases of dissemination of disinformation by Russia on the issue of Ukraine have been identified. Such activity has doubled in the past week, she says. “We've done a lot to combat this,” — the minister said. In particular, she claims, Britain revealed a plan according to which Russia was trying to “install a puppet regime” in Kiev and carry out a false flag operation to fake an attack by Ukraine.
In late January, the British Foreign Office said that Russia was seeking to install a “pro-Russian leader” in Kiev. As a candidate for this role, the ministry named the ex-deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Yevgeny Muraev, who has been under Russian sanctions since 2018. The agency also said that Russian intelligence maintains ties with many former Ukrainian politicians, including former First Deputy Prime Ministers Sergei Arbuzov and Andriy Klyuev, former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, and former Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Volodymyr Sivkovich.
Moscow responded by saying that London was spreading disinformation, and this indicates that “it is the NATO countries, led by the Anglo-Saxons, who are escalating tensions around Ukraine.” The Russian Foreign Ministry urged colleagues to “stop spreading nonsense.” The representative of the department, Maria Zakharova, commenting on reports of an allegedly planned Russian invasion of Ukraine under a false flag, said that Britain had begun a “retreat back and sideways” and inventing new versions. “Perhaps it means that they [Great Britain] will use their flag? I don’t know, this is a question for them, & mdash; said the diplomat. The Russian side insists that it is not going to attack anyone.
The fact that Moscow can use a “provocation or incident”, including carrying out an operation under a false flag, is also say in Washington: in particular, they spoke about this in the State Department and the Pentagon. Permanent Representative of Russia to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov stressed that the Russian side does not deal with such things.
In early February, about the creation of a “psychological protection” agency, the purpose of which combat fake news and foreign interference, including from Russia and China, Sweden announced. The structure will not fight those who spread false information in the country, but will focus on “foreign malefactors”. According to the deputy head of the agency Magnus Hjort, this became necessary on the eve of the parliamentary elections to be held in Sweden in the autumn.
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