DISINFO: White Helmets are a terrorist group run by Western countries
SUMMARY
The terrorist “White Helmets” group […] their operators are in the United States of America, Turkey, and some well-known Western countries.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative portraying the humanitarian White Helmets organisation as a Western-backed terrorist proxy group, in order to obfuscate the responsibility of the Assad regime for chemical attacks perpetrated during the Syrian civil war.
The "White Helmets" movement originated in Syria in 2012, when the first detachments of volunteer rescuers appeared in the territories outside the control of Bashar al-Assad's troops. In 2014, volunteer teams merged into a national organisation, the Syrian Civil Defence, which is the official name of the 'White Helmets'. Volunteers save people from the rubble after bombings, despite the danger to themselves as a result of repeated air strikes. Activists from this organisation have documented the use of chemical weapons in Syria by the Assad government and allied forces. Because of this, they have become the target of an extensive Russian disinformation campaign.
Read previous disinformation claims alleging that evidence confirms chemical attacks in Syria were falsified by the White Helmets, and that the chemical attacks in Syria have been staged and filmed by the media of the Western countries.