Måned: juli 2017

To keep himself in power, Putin has created an off-putting ‘State of Fools,’ Yakovenko says

By Paul Goble, Window on Eurasia “By his planned cleansing of the political field of Russia” of anyone who might challenge him, Vladimir Putin has “liquidated any direct threat to the preservation of his power,” Igor Yakovenko says. But at the same time, he “has created a new albeit long-term threat” to him and Russia. The essence of this threat, the Moscow commentator says, is that “in Russia today, there exists a critical mass of fools in power and fools with initiative,” a reality that Putin himself occasionally acknowledges as he did with regard to official attacks on artists and directors (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59719A83C5005). “But the winner of the competition for the title ‘chief fool of the month’ undoubtedly is DNR head Aleksandr Zakharchenko who declared that he is replacing Ukraine and putting in its place Malorossiya with a capital in Donetsk.” Unlike most fools in Putin’s entourage, this wasn’t a personal evaluation or a prediction: this was a declaration. Holding

Kilde: To keep himself in power, Putin has created an off-putting ‘State of Fools,’ Yakovenko says

The Nazi-obsession of pro-Kremlin propagandists

By East Stratcom We rarely see such a swift and aggressive reaction to a single video. But the Russian communication outburst to a recent eight-minute movie on YouTube was as immediate as it was foul-mouthed. The trigger was a NATO video about the so-called “Forest Brothers” – irregular units in the three Baltic states who fought against the Soviet occupying forces during and after World War II. NATO has produced a film commemorating these fighters who are “remembered as national heroes” in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. But Russia’s representatives immediately pulled out their favourite Nazi-card. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin’s tweet said that the video confirms that “when we face NATO we face the heirs to those of Hitler’s collaborators who survived the war”. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova followed the tone on her Facebook page and described the video as “a perversion of history that NATO knowingly spreads in order to undermine the outcome of the

Kilde: The Nazi-obsession of pro-Kremlin propagandists

Advanced Guide on Verifying Video Content

By  Aric Toler, Bellingcat One of the most common issues for researchers and journalists is verifying user-generated video content, most often found on social networks and file sharing platforms, such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and so on. There is no silver bullet to verify every video, and it may be nearly impossible to verify some videos short of acquiring the original file from the source. However, there is a range of methods we can use to verify most content, especially as it relates to making sure that videos showing breaking news events are not recycled from previous incidents. There are already numerous guides online for verifying video, most notably in the Verification Handbook. This guide will include some extra quirks frequently used by the Bellingcat team, and make an effort to provide our readers with ways to work around the limitations of the available tools. After reading this guide, hopefully you will not only know how to use this tool set, but also how to use

Kilde: Advanced Guide on Verifying Video Content

Fake: Ukraine Blackmails West with EU Membership

If you don’t give us money, we’ll go to Russia. Ukraine Blackmails West with EU Membership, declared a recent headline in the Russian web publication Inforeaktor.  Accompanied by a photograph of Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko this fake story is a classic example Russian disinformation,  implying that Poroshenko really said “If you don’t give us money, we’ll go to Russia” while meeting with EU leaders. The Ukrainian President said no such thing; the video from the EU Ukraine summit proves that. So who actually uttered this phrase?  His name is David Giberman and he’s a political pundit for ultra-right and radical Russian fringe sites. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJyB8rsw6QM But first things first. Inforeaktor story cites an opinion piece on Ukraine-EU relations by one Yevhen Yaroshenko, an analyst from the International Centre for Policy Studies. Writing on the center’s official website Apostrof, Yaroshenko erroneously connects the Association Agreement with EU membership,

Kilde: Fake: Ukraine Blackmails West with EU Membership