Russian intelligence agencies are waging a disinformation campaign to undermine public confidence in Western COVID-19 vaccines, according to a State Department official.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the official, from the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), identified four small online publications that are spreading false and misleading claims by emphasizing the side effects of vaccines, questioning their effectiveness and claiming that the US had accelerated the development of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine.
The official said he believed the sites were fronts for Russian intelligence, and his false narratives are being amplified by the Russian and international media, reports the Journal.
“We can say that these means of communication are directly linked to the Russian intelligence services,” the GEC official told the newspaper. “They are all foreign owned, based outside the United States. They vary widely in their reach, their tone, their audience, but they are all part of Russian propaganda and the disinformation ecosystem. “
According to the official, New Eastern Outlook and Oriental Review are directly controlled by the Russian foreign intelligence agency SVR. Another online publication, News Front, is allegedly guided by the Russian FSB and has links to Kremlin funding. Rebel Inside, an online publication that covers riots, is controlled by the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, according to the GEC official.
“Russian intelligence services have a direct responsibility for using these four platforms to spread propaganda and lies,” a State Department spokesman told the Journal. “Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, we have seen Russia’s disinformation ecosystem develop and spread false narratives around the crisis.”
The newspaper notes that the Russian government’s Twitter accounts have also tried to raise concerns about the Pfizer vaccine. Experts outside the U.S. government said this effort was being made to promote the sale of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine.
State Department spokesman Ned Price confirmed the Journal’s report during a press conference on Monday.
“These sites actually included misinformation about two of the vaccines that have now been approved … in this country,” said Price.
“It is very clear that Russia is doing its old tricks and, in doing so, is potentially putting people at risk by spreading misinformation about vaccines that we know are saving lives every day,” said Price. “The Global Engagement Center, other entities here, is focused on combating disinformation and propaganda globally, not only in the Russian context, but it is clear that the Russians have been engaged in this effort for some time.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the allegations, claiming that American officials were misrepresenting the international debate over the vaccine as a plot of Russian intelligence.
“It’s an absurd. Russian special services have nothing to do with any criticism of vaccines, ”Peskov told the Journal. “If we treat all negative publications against the Sputnik V vaccine as a result of the efforts of the American special services, we will go crazy because we see it every day, every hour and in all Anglo-Saxon media.”
– Updated at 16:00