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D Is in F O R M a T Io DISINFORMATION: The Principal Instrument of Russian Diplomacy International forums are intended to seek dia - logue, resolve complex issues, support peace and prevent armed conflicts. Nevertheless, some members of the international community use them and, more broadly, diplomacy to pro - mote their propaganda, justify their crimes, and discredit victims of their aggression. Their princi - pal instrument to this end is disinformation. To say that Putin’s Russia is on the forefront of using disinformation in the diplomatic arena would not be an overstatement. Its multi-vec - tor hybrid aggression implies manipulative de - ception of the international community with a view to avoiding responsibility for its crimes and violating international law. Russian diplomats have long been a crucial el - ement in hybrid warfare which the Kremlin is waging against its neighbors, Western values, and Western countries in general. This brochure reviews some examples that demonstrate the systemic and deliberate nature of lies spread by Putin’s diplomatic practition - ers—ranging from statements of representa - tives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation to disinformation at OSCE or UN Security Council meetings. “In the first place, the Russian delegation is interested in using Security Council meetings to wage its disinformation cam - paign against Ukraine and accuse the Ukrainian government of everything that is happening in the occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions”, says Volodymyr Yelchenko, Permanent Representa - tive of Ukraine to the UN. Revolution of Dignity (2013–2014) The events that took place in Kyiv in 2013–2014 saw former President of Ukraine Victor Yanukovych flee the country. They went down in Ukrainian history as the “Revolu - tion of Dignity” or “EuroMaidan”. At first, the reason behind mass demonstrations was the refusal of the Ukrainian government to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union. But when Ukrainian authorities re - Victor Yanukovych sponded to the demonstrations by vio - lently beating students on November 30, 2013, for no apparent reason, hundreds of thousands of concerned Ukrainians took to the streets in protest at the arbitrary actions of the authorities and in support of the European future of their country. Not everybody, however, agreed with such an obvious interpreta - tion of the events. Russia’s au - thoritarian regime, which feigns public unrest and any display of civic activism, started to accuse Western countries of alledgly set - ting up EuroMaidan in Ukraine in order to “tear Ukraine away from Russia”. “[The crisis in Ukraine was] provoked Vitaly Churkin mainly by … external forces, which intended to break age-old ties uniting Ukraine and Russia… Ministers and other representatives of the Euro - Disinformation: The Principal Instrument of Russian Diplomacy • 4 • pean Union and the United States marched openly among anti-government demonstrators”, said Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, at the UN General Assembly session on March 27, 2014. In reality, no “external forces” could ever have moved hundreds of thousands of people to the streets. EuroMaidan had solely internal reasons, made possi - ble by the Yanukovych regime. It is not the West that made Yanukovych re - fuse from the promised association with the European Union, and it is not the West who ordered security officers to violently suppress the peaceful stu - dents’ demonstration on November 30, 2014. Most likely, the Russian representative lied to divert the attention of the world community away from Russia’s ille - gal annexation of Crimea and make it look as if Ukraine’s loss of the peninsula was the “result of Maidan, staged by Western pow - ers” and of Russia’s military ag - gression against Ukraine. At the same UN General Assembly session, Vitaly Churkin was spreading disinformation about the confrontation during the Revolution of Dignity to the Maidan. Kyiv. 2014 whole world: “The central square of the city (Maidan) was turned into a military camp. Well-prepared and equipped units of militants attacked law enforcement forces and occu - pied administrative buildings…" . In fact, everything was vice versa: common Ukrainians with absolutely no training and using improvised means, were pro - tecting Maidan from regular assaults, which security forces usually attempted at night. The Kremlin’s representative, however, did not stop with these lies and, speaking at the world’s main forum, accused the US of shooting people at Maidan. “In [the House of Trade Unions], the so-called command post of the Maidan was organised, and a headquarters of the US Embassy oper - ated constantly on the seventh floor of this building. Incidentally, sniper shooting both on representatives of law enforcement agencies and on Disinformation: The Principal Instrument of Russian Diplomacy • 5 • demonstrators, the purpose of which was to provoke a change of power by force, was organised from this building” , Vitaly Churkin said. This is a complete nonsense, simply because there was no “headquarters of the US Embassy” at the House of Trade Unions whatsoever. In addition, a report by the Interna - tional Advisory Panel, created by the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe in April 2014, did not men - tion the House of Trade Unions as a possible location of the snipers. On the contrary, it states that most of the killings perpetrated on February 20 were most likely com - mitted by officers of the Berkut spe - cial police service. The then Ambassador of the US to Geoffrey R. Pyatt Ukraine, Geoffrey R. Pyatt, commented on that speech by Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN: “It is utter madness. It was not staged by America. Maidan was organized and carried out by the Ukrainian people, and those people were from the most diverse political forces.” Disinformation: The Principal Instrument of Russian Diplomacy • 6 • Russia’s War against Ukraine Another disinformation narrative actively pro - moted by Russia in the international arena was that “a coup d’état took place in Ukraine”. It should be noted that the Revolution of Dignity could not have been a “coup d’état” by definition since a coup d’état has one important condition — the change of government always takes place in violation of valid constitutional and legal regulations. After Yanukovych fled, however, Ukraine still had a legitimate parlia - ment, which took all decisions in accor - dance with the Constitution of Ukraine. Official medal Later, early presidential and parliamen - tary elections were scheduled, which, too, were held in strict accordance with the law. And, above all, the President and the Parliament of Ukraine, which were elected in 2014, took control of the country not as a result of a “coup d’é - tat” but through democratic elections, scheduled by a legitimate parliament in accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine. As time goes by, Ukraine will soon hold second presidential and parlia - mentary elections since Maidan. Yet Moscow still continues its large-scale disinformation cam - paign concerning the Maidan events in 2013–2014. Since the very beginning of Russian military aggression against Ukraine, which—according to an official medal by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Petro Poroshenko Federation—started on February 20, Disinformation: The Principal Instrument of Russian Diplomacy • 7 • 2014, Moscow has been carrying out a diplomatic disinformation campaign in an attempt to convince the international community of its “rightness” and, at the same time, accuse Ukraine of the catastrophe caused, in fact, by the crim - inal invasion by the Russian army into the sovereign Ukrainian State. More than 10,000 people killed and more than 2mln refugees; ruined towns and villages; lost Ukrainian territories; and demolished infrastructure—this is what Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, already lasting for four years and a half, has brought about. Official Moscow is well aware that such horrible crimes cannot have no conse - quences for the aggressor and, therefore, exerts considerable diplomatic ef - fort to deceive the international community and continue its aggression against sovereign Ukraine unpunished. Disinformation: The Principal Instrument of Russian Diplomacy • 8 • “They-Are-Not-There” “They-are-not-there” (“Ikhtamnyet” in Russ - ian) is a phrase that has become a sort of symbol for one of the Kremlin’s largest disinformation campaigns. Now, there is hardly anyone who believes it, although over the re - cent years this phrase has been constantly mentioned at all inter - national forums in which Russian representatives have taken part. For a year since March 2014, Rus - sia systematically refused to admit that its armed forces had been involved in the annexation of Crimea, and called them “local self-defense forces”. A year “They-Are-Not-There” later, however, Vladimir Putin himself ad - mitted that they had been Russia’s regular troops and special-operation forces. On March 4, 2014, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that “Russia does not give orders to Crimean self-defense forces, and the servicemen of the Russian Black Sea Fleet remain at their stations.” Undoubtedly, that was a lie: there already were a lot of photos and videos on the Inter - net proving just the opposite. On March 18, 2014, the first blood was shed in the Russian-Ukrainian war: Ukrainian warrant officer Serhii Kokurin was killed in an attack by Russian troops on the Ukrainian pho - togrammetry center in Simferopol. Sergey Lavrov Disinformation: The Principal Instrument of Russian Diplomacy • 9 • On March 20, 2014, at a UN Security Council meeting, Russian representative Vitaly Churkin spread blatant disinformation regarding this killing: “There was no alleged raid on the Ukrainian military facility by Russian troops, men - tioned by the permanent representative of Ukraine, whatsoever... Russ - ian soldiers were not even close to the facility. There were unarmed men from the self-defense forces, wearing but bulletproof vests.” This was a lie, because a year later Putin would admit that all facilities in Crimea had been captured by Russian regular troops and special forces.
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