The Cold War could return with revenge, and major U.S. adversaries eliminate some old-school Soviet tactics.
Recently, Russian and Chinese government officials have joined together to publicly accuse the U.S. of creating biological weapons near its borders and suggest that Americans are responsible for creating COVID-19.
Speaking to the Russian newspaper Kommersant on Thursday, Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council, said: “I suggest you pay attention to the fact that biological laboratories under control in the United States are growing by leaps and bounds around the world. And – by strange coincidence – mainly near the Russian and Chinese borders.
Patrushev, who previously served as director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) – the Soviet KGB’s main successor organization – added that “outbreaks of diseases not characteristic of these regions” have been reported in adjacent areas. to these supposed biological laboratories. He then openly accused the United States of developing biological weapons at these facilities.
Like the clock, the Russian state media echoed and spread Patrushev’s accusations against the United States, but this time they were accompanied by an official statement from the spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Lijian Zhao, who he tweeted: “US biomilitary activities are not transparent, safe or justified. In Ukraine alone, the US has created 16 bio-laboratories. Why does the US need so many labs around the world? What activities are carried out in these laboratories, including that of Fort Detrick? “
Zhao expressed the same accusations during an official press conference, where he identified Russia as his source on the issue. “I noticed that Russia recently asked the U.S. again about its biological and military activities in Fort Detrick and Ukraine,” Zhao said. “Other countries also expressed similar concerns.”
Unfounded accusations against the US and Ukraine have come at a particularly convenient time for Putin, who has recently stepped up Kremlin efforts to absorb the Donbas region. In February this year, the Russian president viciously promised that “[The Kremlin] it will never turn [its] back to Donbas, whatever happens. “
Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Kremlin-funded RT and Sputnik, doubled the promotion of Russia’s takeover of eastern Ukraine, with repeated urgencies for “Mother Russia” to “bring Donbas home.” By presenting Ukraine as a threat to national security for Russia and alleging its involvement in the manufacture of deadly biological weapons, the Kremlin can further justify its increasingly aggressive stance toward its much-desired territory.
In the same way that Trump had helped an outbreak of violence against Asian Americans by calling COVID-19 the “China virus” and spreading unfounded claims that the virus was made in a laboratory in Wuhan, opponents of the The US has strived to cultivate this kind of hostility against America on a global scale. Both Russia and China will benefit from getting the blame for the pandemic in the US, and if Ukraine can also be involved theoretically, better for the Kremlin.
It is not the first time Russia has claimed that the US creates and spreads deadly diseases around the world. In 1992, Russia perpetuated a KGB disinformation campaign that falsely claimed that the virus that caused AIDS was the product of biological weapons experiments conducted by the United States. created by the US in collaboration with Britain and South Africa.
There is another common denominator to these disinformation tactics: in addition to accusing the U.S. of having participated in a global biological war, the Kremlin is positioning itself at the same time as a lone savior.
“[Russia] saved Africa from Ebola, ”Olga Skabeeva of Russia’s state television 60 minutes he proudly declared last month. In an attempt to discredit COVID-19 vaccines created by Western countries, Russian state media have often praised “Sputnik V” as the best coronavirus vaccine in the world, although worrying information about the vaccine manufactured in Russia.
To overcome the suspension of disbelief and promote the idea that the United States is capable of doing the worst kind of abuse against humanity, Russian propagandists now resort to a too familiar dehumanization tactic: painting America as a supervillain.
“[Americans] you don’t even have the word “soulfulness” in English, “Margarita Simonyan of RT recently proclaimed on Russian television.” We are spirits. They are not like us. “