> The media multiplier effect can, at times, create disinformation storms with potentially dangerous effects for those Russia perceives as adversaries at the international, national, and local level. In the past, Russia has leveraged this dynamic to shield itself from criticism for its involvement in malign activity. This approach also allows Russia to be opportunistic, such as with COVID-19, where it has used the global pandemic as a hook to push longstanding disinformation and propaganda narratives.
Screenshot of a Geopolitica.ru article promoting conspiracy theories around Bill Gates.
> Bill Gates is linked to the COVID-19 outbreak and uses the pandemic to implant microchips “in whole of humanity [sic].” COVID-19 vaccines are a fraud spearheaded by Gates and Big Pharma.
https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/io/news/virality-project-fina...
> While all nations have engaged in some form of diplomacy or messaging related to vaccines, the Virality Project focused on observing state media and social media networks linked to Russia, China, and Iran. These three nations not only promoted their own efforts, but also attempted to undermine their rivals.
It's not a conspiracy.
Dismissing people or statement because they sound vaguely similar to some foreign source is in itself an obvious propaganda technique that uses exactly the same mentality as the dumbest conspiracy theories out there.
> I would not be surprised if there is an effort by some states to discredit the vaccine on English speaking forums.
Their claim was that adversaries are spreading vaccine disinformation. This is backed up by evidence. The only claim being made is that adversaries are doing this.
Their implied claim was that the comment is relevant to the current discussion. That's insinuation.
BTW, did you notice that the very first reference in your reputable report was to NYT, which says very similar things and in turn cites declassified intelligence. Government citing NYT citing government. Even ignoring its dubious quality, the report is dated August 2020, which predates all the Covid vaccines and vaccine-related policies.
The only claim was that they are saying it.
All that to say that, yeah, I believe there's a lot of conspiracy theorists among people who aren't OK with Covid vaccine policies.
/rant
The class action lawsuits, and all the healthcare providers, primarily nurses, fired for refusing the vaccine.
All this weirdness around having to write cases for exemption, being tracked in a database, among other things.