At the White House this week, President Biden said the United States had “reason to believe” that Russia was “engaged in a false flag operation” to use as an excuse to invade Ukraine.
A new report by the European Expert Association, a research group that focuses on security in Ukraine, and the technology watchdog group Reset Tech said that since October, misinformation researchers had observed rumors circulating widely online and in Russian news media that could be groundwork for such an operation, or to help justify a military buildup.
Many of the rumors first started circulating on anonymous Telegram channels, and were then repeated in televised statements by Russian officials, the report said. Others started with statements from Russian officials and were repeated on Telegram channels until they became talking points among ordinary citizens.
“The rhetoric of the pro-Kremlin sources lately has become much more aggressive,” Maria Avdeeva, research director at the European Expert Association, said.
At the request of The New York Times, the Global Disinformation Index, a nonprofit research group, independently evaluated the report and said the research appeared reliable.
Here are some of the unsupported claims the European Expert Association researchers found.
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