DISINFORMATION: The Western media misleads public opinion regarding the crisis in Ukraine, which in fact is one its diversions

NARRATIVES: 1. The Western media misleads public opinion regarding the crisis in Ukraine. 2. The Western media is sensationalist, much like the former OTV television station, fabricating news. 3. The crisis in Ukraine is a diversion the West employs in order to manipulate public attention, just like terrorists were invented during the Romanian Revolution so that Iliescu’s faction could seize power. 4 (Implied) Russia is not the aggressor in Ukraine.

BACKGROUND: As early as the spring of 2021, Russia, a country that has already invaded Ukraine in 2014 and has since provided support to the separatist forces in Donbas, threatened to escalate the situation and launch a new attack. Last year in spring, Russia amassed a sizable force close to the Ukrainian borders. After a series of conversations between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, Russia withdrew its troops, only to rally them again at the end of last year. Following this second mobilization, Ukraine finds itself almost completely surrounded, with Russian forces now stationed in occupied Crimea and in the Black Sea (where warships from other areas were also deployed), along the common border and in Belarus, a country that hosted military drills jointly with Russian troops. Russia’s military strength also relies on important quantities of offensive heavy weapons, and the size of the army and its position have sparked concern in Kiev and the West. In response to these concerns, Russia submitted a series of demands to Western powers and Ukraine, issuing an ultimatum to the former to provide guarantees that NATO won’t be expanding eastwards, although this is the sovereign prerogative of every state that wishes to join the Alliance. Furthermore, Moscow also called on NATO to withdraw to its original position at the end of the Cold War. Basically, against the backdrop of a show of military strength and with the implicit threat that this force will be used (at no point during this time has Russia ruled out an actual war, simply stating that it doesn’t want one), the Kremlin seeks to undo the current security framework in Europe and to return to a system of relations between superpowers which is specific of the 19^th century, more likely, when Europe was dominated by imperial powers.

Pretending its national security is under threat, Russia is opposing Ukraine’s sovereign decision to decide its own future and has created a hotbed of instability in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk by overtly backing Russian separatism, including by means of the Wagner private military contractor.  

Russian propaganda has gone to great lengths to depict the West as the aggressor, whereas in fact Russia is the one that undertook a series of aggressive actions in the region beyond which it resorted either to conventional or hybrid warfare. The invasion of Georgia in 2008 and of Ukraine in 2014, the cyber-attacks, the disinformation campaigns, the attempted interference with the election processes in certain Western states, are all part of the arsenal Moscow has been using for over a decade in order to attain its political goals.

Ion Cristoiu seems to take Russia’s claims at face value, arguing Russia is not preparing for war, and seeks to deride Western media and its coverage of the crisis in Ukraine. Cristoiu places the entire Western media in the distinct category of tabloids, and in addition carries over certain narratives of Russian propaganda (as well as some coming from the populist far-right in the West) regarding its credibility.

Cristoiu’s latest intervention comes as the journalist faces serious credibility issues, being associated with the kind of approach that goes against journalistic standards. Paradoxically, Ion Cristoiu is now accusing a number of publications which, over the course of decades, have built a strong reputation as reliable sources, of falling short of the very same standards. Ion Cristoiu is a product of communist-era media. He was editor-in-chief at Evenimentul Zilei, a daily known at the time for introducing sensationalist journalism in Romania and for fabricating news (famous pieces include stories about a hen giving birth to live chicken or the two-headed girl). After his spell at Evenimentul Zilei, Ion Cristoiu collaborated with so-called “oligarch-controlled TV stations”, which over the years were accused of having conducted widespread disinformation and manipulation campaigns, serving the political or economic interests of their owners. 

The crisis in Ukraine was not invented by the West, as Ion Cristoiu asserts. Russia is the one who pressured Ukraine in 2013 not to sign the EU Association Agreement. When the people stood up and ousted the regime that had distanced itself from the country’s pro-European track, Russia invaded Ukraine, annexed Crimea and played a key role in the ensuing developments in Donbas – the outbreak of the insurrection, the conflict, the proclamation of separatist republics, which would never have endured without Moscow’s direct support. The current crisis on the Ukrainian border is the result of Russia mobilizing a sizable force and surrounding Ukraine, without being provoked in any way. Once it deployed its troops, Russia issued ultimatums and demands. Therefore, Russia is fully responsible for generating this crisis, to which Western governments have responded in an attempt to avert a war, and which the media reported on as such.

PURPOSE: To promote the notion that Russia won’t attack Ukraine and that people should not be worried by this topic. To undermine the credibility of Western media. To portray Russia as an innocent victim of Western propaganda.

WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: The Western media is closely monitoring the crisis in Ukraine and Russia’s movement of troops on the Ukrainian border, where it has amassed some 130.000 soldiers and heavy weapons. It regularly publicizes the points of view of all stakeholders (including Russia), providing on-scene accounts, expert analyses, etc., so that the public can get the full picture of the developments. The Western media also carried criticism targeting the estimates of intelligence services (which were at odds with the analyses of various civilian experts) or the statements of certain officials with respect to an impending conflict.

The way in which Ion Cristoiu is trying to draw a parallel between Western media outlets with an international standing and tabloid-like institutions – comparing the Bild tabloid to the Der Spiegel, a publication specializing in in-depth investigations, CNN to Dan Diaconescu’s OTV – is reminiscent of certain ridicule ploys frequently employed by Russian propaganda in order to downplay and at the same time deride otherwise reliable Western media. With respect to CNN, Ion Cristoiu actually resorts to arguments specific to the American populist right and to the former president Donald Trump, who constantly dismissed stories that he found to be inconvenient as “fake news”, without providing any evidence and despite the numerous facts that supported the opposite.

Also worth mentioning is that Russia and its propaganda have used the same narrative line, claiming the Western media and officials are creating a hysteria, seeking to spread panic at society level.

All the aforementioned publications quoted sources to report about a message the United States has conveyed to its European allies. More specifically, the publication mentions specific information obtained by intelligence services, according to which “an attack might take place as early as next Wednesday”, “der Angriff könnte bereits am kommenden Mittwoch erfolgen” (bolds by Veridica). Ion Cristoiu therefore ignores an extremely important difference, which the entire media published accordingly: no one said the war will start on Wednesday, but merely that it could start on this day. Basically, Ion Cristoiu is doing the very thing he accuses the Western media of doing: lying and manipulating public opinion in spite of the undeniable facts.

Also with a view to misleading public opinion, Ion Cristoiu, quoted by Sputnik, compares the present-day headlines of Western media to the manipulation strategies employed during the 1989 Revolution in order to convey a distinctively familiar overtone to his arguments.

GRAIN OF TRUTH: Der Spiegel and other media organizations have published information regarding the imminence of a Russian attack against Ukraine.