DISINFO: The interruption of Pedro Sánchez’s press conference in Lithuania by Russian aircraft was staged and Russophobic
SUMMARY
The two aircraft that interrupted a press conference in Lithuania with Spain’s president Pedro Sánchez were carrying out a planned training flight over neutral waters of the Baltic. They didn’t violate NATO’s airspace or pose any risk to the Spanish leader. The reason for technical employees running behind the two spokespersons and in front of the cameras, as if we were at the brink of war, was part of a well-known phenomenon: Russophobia. It was strange to celebrate a press conference in a place like that, probably it was a game for the cameras and the public. The plan was to show how insidious Russia frustrates a peaceful press conference, and then the Western media will describe it in sinister terms.
RESPONSE
The claim is false. On 8 July 2021, a joint press conference by Spain’s Pedro Sánchez and Lithuania’s president Gitanas Nauseda was cut short after it was determined that at least one unidentified Russian aircraft had taken off from Russia’s Kaliningrad region without filing a flight plan. Spanish Eurofighter jets based in Lithuania on a NATO mission to police Baltic air space were scrambled in response, identified two Russian SU-24 jets heading northeast with their transponders turned off and refusing to talk to air traffic controllers, according to a NATO official quoted by Reuters. Military sources affirmed that incidents of this type often occur when European authorities visit or when NATO exercises are being carried out.
Allegations about “Russophobia” are a frequent pro-Kremlin disinformation strategy to deflect any criticism on Russia’s illicit actions. See other examples in our database, such as claims about the supposed anti-Russian bias of international institutions - be it the OPCW, the World Anti-Doping Agency or the United Nations - which always falsely accuse Russia; the alleged Russophobia of the EU; the affirmation that it is NATO and not the Kremlin who is involved in the Donbas conflict; denials that Russia had any role in the poisoning of Sergey Skripal or the downing of MH17; or claims that neither the US Intelligence Committee report nor the Mueller report found any evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 US elections, that there is no proof that Russia tried to influence the Brexit referendum, that “absurd” accusations against Russia are an attempt to demonise it, or that for the West, Russia is an enemy that must be surrounded with military bases.