DISINFO: Italian newspaper, NATO waging disinformation campaign against Russia's COVID-19 aid to Italy
SUMMARY
Activists linked to the Atlantic Council think tank, an adjunct of NATO, have launched a coordinated smear campaign targeting Russia’s dispatch of humanitarian relief to pandemic-stricken Italy. The activists took to Twitter and falsely dismissed Russia’s aid as “80% useless,” citing a report in the La Stampa newspaper. The article relied on the testimony of an anonymous source, which means we will have to take the author’s word for it. Not surprisingly, the author himself is also linked to the Atlantic Council. What’s most interesting here the fact that so many of the people pushing the disinformation are connected to the pro-NATO pressure group. Not to mention the fact that they used almost the same form of words. Was this coordination, or coincidence?
RESPONSE
Conspiracy theory. The Atlantic Council is not a "NATO adjunct" or a "pressure group." It operates separately from NATO as a non-profit organisation and maintains both financial (pp. 83-87) and intellectual independence. RT seeks to discredit La Stampa's report by making unfounded claims about its author's "anti-Russia" bias, and by implying that his reliance on anonymous sources somehow casts doubt on the accuracy of the story. This is not so. Like most other newspapers of record, La Stampa follows a strict policy on source anonymity. Its chief editor explains that comments from unnamed sources are to be used as a "last resort"; clearly identified as such in the news item; and only cited on the approval of the editor himself, who must first be informed of the source's identity. La Stampa story has since been corroborated by additional sources in the Italian military. See more examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation about the coronavirus.