Russian-backed news organizations are spreading disinformation about the coronavirus vaccines in the United States, according to the Biden administration.
The State Department’s Global Engagement Center identified four outlets — News Front, New Eastern Outlook, Oriental Review, and Rebel Inside — that it believes are spreading false information about the vaccines the U.S. has developed.
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“The Department of State can confirm that the Global Engagement Center (GEC) has identified four Russian platforms that are directed by Russian intelligence services and spread disinformation,” a spokesperson for the State Department told the Washington Examiner. “These four platforms are: News Front, which is guided and tasked by the Federal Security Service; New Eastern Outlook and Oriental Review, directed and controlled by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service; and Rebel Inside, controlled by the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. These sites all vary in their reach, tone, and audience – but they all are spreading Russian propaganda and disinformation. The State Department’s finding of a link between these sites and Russian Intelligence is a result of a joint interagency conclusion.”
“Three of these outlets (News Front, New Eastern Outlook and Oriental Review) spread many types of disinformation, including about both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, as well as international organizations, military conflicts, protests; and any divisive issue that they can exploit. Rebel Inside has been largely dormant for the past year,” the spokesperson added. “The Department will continue to expose Russia’s nefarious activities online. We will also continue to work closely with our allies and partners to provide a global response to countering disinformation.”
The news outlets, despite having small audiences, played up the potential side effects of the vaccine, questioned its efficacy, and claimed that the U.S. rushed the Pfizer vaccine through the emergency authorization process.
New Eastern Outlook and Oriental Review are controlled by the SVR, or Russia foreign intelligence service, while News Front is led by the FSB, the security service that succeeded the KGB, and Rebel Inside is controlled by the GRU, which is the intelligence apparatus of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the allegations.
“It’s nonsense. Russian special services have nothing to do with any criticism against vaccines,” Peskov said. “If we treat every negative publication against the Sputnik V vaccine as a result of efforts by American special services, then we will go crazy because we see it every day, every hour, and in every Anglo-Saxon media.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki addressed the development during Monday’s briefing.
“Well, first, we can reiterate that we will fight, with every tool we have, disinformation. We are certainly not new to — we are certainly familiar with, I should say, the approach and tactics of Russian disinformation efforts, and we will reiterate that, at every opportunity, these vaccines are safe, they’ve been approved by the FDA,” she explained. “We will have, of course, health and medical experts conveying that at every turn, and we will work for ways to combat disinformation. But we are aware of it, we are monitoring it, and we are taking steps to address.”
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A report from the Alliance for Security Democracy, a U.S. think tank that focuses on the dangers authoritarian governments pose for democracies, claimed that the impetus behind the disinformation campaign has to do with Russia promoting its own COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V.
“The emphasis on denigrating Pfizer is likely due to its status as the first vaccine besides Sputnik V to see mass use, resulting in a greater potential threat to Sputnik’s market dominance,” the report says.
The Global Engagement Center has previously accused Russia of promoting disinformation about the pandemic.
