The European Commission should first of all deal with the flow of lies and misinformation, which is published in the Western press about the situation with coronavirus in Russia, member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy Evgeni Revenko said, commenting on a statement by the EC official spokesman Peter Stano about alleged misinformation coming from the Russian Federation on COVID-19.
Stano previously stated in an interview with the tabloid Bild am Sonntag that, according to the EC, various “sources from Russia” allegedly contribute to the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation about a new type of coronavirus in the EU countries. According to him, the purpose of such misinformation is to “call into question the credibility and ability of the EU and the member states of the association to overcome the crisis”, in addition, it is allegedly about the desire to “undermine public confidence in local authorities”. The tabloid note does not contain any examples of “misinformation”, nor references to specific sources, which, according to the representative of the EC, disseminate such data.
“You don’t need to shift from a sick mind to a healthy one. It would not hurt to first of all deal with the stream of lies and misinformation published in the Western press in connection with the situation in Russia. I would advise Peter Stano to pay attention to publications in the Financial Times and New The York Times, which groundlessly claimed that mortality statistics in Russia are very underestimated. Nobody can still answer the question on the basis of which these publications are made”, – Revenko said.
Earlier, the Financial Times reported that mortality from coronavirus in Russia could be more than 70% higher than official statistics. According to official figures, in April 629 people died from COVID-19 in Moscow and St. Petersburg. However, according to the publication, citing its own analysis, in both cities 72% more people died this month than the average over the past five years: 1841 people in Moscow and 232 in St. Petersburg, a total of 2073 people. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said that Russia has never manipulated official statistics. According to a WHO representative, there is no conscious understatement of mortality due to COVID-19 in Russia.
“Obviously, these publications have two goals: to divert attention from their own problems, problems in the healthcare sector, and to sow distrust among the population of official information. And I can attribute this statement to the same category of publications”, – Revenko emphasized.
The deputy noted that Stano’s statement could also be an attempt to “cover up the unseemly activity” carried out by individual foreign media.
“I am regretful and perplexed by such statements by official representatives due to the fact that in this difficult, difficult situation, in which everyone found themselves, it is necessary to show solidarity, and not to sort things out with each other”, – Revenko concluded.
As stated earlier by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the European Union has not provided a single fact about the alleged misinformation on the part of Russia about the coronavirus pandemic. According to the minister, Russia is accustomed to the fact that Western colleagues are increasingly trying to find some motives that unite them in fiction about the Russian or some other threat.