DISINFO: The EU is doomed because the US is playing against it
SUMMARY
The January 2022 leak of a document titled "America's survival, Germany's weakening" revealed that only a serious economic crisis in the EU and Germany can save the US. To provoke a crisis, Germany's ties with Russian energy need to be cut off, and Germany and Russia need to be in conflict over Ukraine. Without this, Europe will become a periphery.
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation about the EU's disintegration and bleak prospects and war in Ukraine. The case is also implicitly related to the issue of Western sanctions on Russia, with the EU being presented as a victim and puppet of the US, which wants to destroy the economy of Europe for its own benefit. See our analysis of the Kremlin's claims about the EU's lost sovereignty.
Pro-Kremlin media have repeatedly disseminated stories claiming the US planned Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent energy crisis, citing a fabricated document allegedly produced by the RAND Corporation and made public via a leak – a conspiracy previously debunked by StopFake and Myth Detector. See our earlier disinformation case dedicated to this story.
The EU and other countries around the world adopted several sanction packages against Russia due to its illegal aggression and occupation of Ukrainian territories. Read this summary of the EU’s response to assist Ukraine one year after large-scale Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
According to preliminary data from the European Commission, growth in the EU and the euro area is estimated at 3.5% for 2022, which is said to be “quite outstanding outturns, proving the remarkable resilience of the EU economy to the headwinds unleashed by Russia's war against Ukraine and in particular the energy crisis”.
See other similar examples of disinformation alleging that the US is destroying industry in Europe by forcing Brussels to sanction Russia, that Western sanctions on Russian energy jeopardize the global economy, and that the US has destroyed German economy.