Edited by pengecatbintang at 17-8-2024 08:29 AM
Kremlin Claims Monkeypox Could Be a Secret U.S. Bioweapon
Washington needs to stop being a pushover in the global infowar.
August 21, 2022
There’s a lot we don’t know about how monkeypox, which hadbeen prevalent in parts of Africa but only started infecting people in theUnited States and Europe this spring, is spreading. Yet the Russian defenseministry and Kremlin-controlled media outlets have been busy suggesting toaudiences around the globe that the outbreak was engineered by U.S. militarybiological laboratories. Russian Duma Deputy Chair Irina Yarovaya echoed theKremlin’s latest conspiracy theory earlier this month when she called on theWorld Health Organization (WHO) to lead an investigation into “the secrets ofthe U.S. military biolaboratories.”
Russia’s monkeypox narrative is a textbook Kremlin informationoperation, a reprise of the Russian campaign to link COVID-19 to U.S. biolabactivities. It’s long past time for the United States to respond to theKremlin’s information warfare and debunk these theories. Washington shouldapply the lessons it learned in the lead-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine,when the Biden administration successfully leveraged its intelligence advantageto neutralize Russian disinformation and expose the Kremlin’s war plans for allthe world to see.
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