DISINFO: The continuous poisoning of Russian dissidents 'implicating' the Kremlin is suspicious
SUMMARY
If Russia had anything to do with poisoning dissidents, it wouldn’t repeat that continuously and against all of them, according to an expert. For him, the continuous presence of supposed dissidents who are poisoned with something implicating the Kremlin is suspicious. He thinks that the story is pre-made, which is shown by the fact that it repeats itself, is continuous and essentially aims to corner Russia, impose economic sanctions on it and prevent new relations with the European Union.
RESPONSE
Contrary to the conspiratorial claim, international reactions to the poisoning of Alexei Navalny are not “a pre-made story aiming to corner Russia”. There is a long list of Russian dissidents poisoned in controversial circumstances, and at least in the cases of Alexander Litvinenko and Sergei Skripal, there is strong evidence of the involvement of Russian intelligence operatives and high-level Russian officials. The reaction of the Russian government, who instead of fully cooperating with an open investigation opted for launching a disinformation campaign on the poisoning and accused Germany of launching a “fact-free information campaign against Russia”, further reinforced international suspicions and criticism. The use of multiple and simultaneous versions of an event involving questionable actions by the Russian government or its allies, in order to confound citizens about the actual truth, is a recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation strategy, already seen in the cases of the MH17 downing, the illegal annexation of Crimea, the murder attempt against Sergei and Yulia Skripal or chemical attacks in Syria. See other examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives on Alexei Navalny’s poisoning in our database, such as claims that only caffeine and alcohol were found in his blood, that the US wanted to use it to block Nord Stream 2 and Russia’s vaccine against coronavirus, that the West hopes that he dies to have an excuse for new sanctions, or that Western accusations about Navalny’s case are as false as they were about Sergei Skripal and Alexander Litvinenko. This disinformation message appeared in the same article as the claim that “Russia doesn’t have Novichok anymore”.