US alleges Russia planning false flag operation against Ukraine using 'graphic' video
Source: CNN
The US is alleging that Russia has been preparing to "fabricate a pretext for an invasion" of Ukraine, this time using a "graphic" video that would depict a fake attack against Russia.
A senior administration official told CNN that the US has intelligence suggesting that the Russian government, with the help of Russia's intelligence services, has been planning to produce a propaganda video depicting graphic scenes of a "staged false explosion with corpses, actors depicting mourners, and images of destroyed locations and military equipment," the official said. The US believes Russia has already recruited actors to be involved in the fake attack.
The US believes that the military equipment used in the video of the fabricated attack would be made to look like it is Ukrainian or from an allied nation. The official said the video could include images of Bayraktar drones, which NATO ally Turkey has provided to Ukraine, "as a means to implicate NATO in the attack."
The fake attack in the video would be aimed against Russian sovereign territory or against Russian-speaking people, the official said, and would "be released to underscore a threat to Russia's security and to underpin military operations," the official said. "This video, if released, could provide Putin the spark he needs to initiate and justify military operations against Ukraine."'
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/03/politics/us-alleges-russian-false-flag-ukraine/index.html
The Washington Post also reported this:
U.S. accuses Russia of planning to film false attack as pretext for Ukraine invasion
By Ellen Nakashima, Shane Harris, Ashley Parker and John Hudson
Russia is considering filming a fake attack against Russian territory or Russian-speaking people by Ukrainian forces as a pretext to invade its neighbor, the Biden administration said Thursday, warning that the resulting propaganda footage could include “graphic scenes of a staged false explosion with corpses.”
Russia has already recruited the people who would be involved in the fabricated attack video, and Russian intelligence is intimately involved in the effort, a senior Biden administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the administration.
“We believe that Russia would produce a very graphic propaganda video, which would include corpses and actors that would be depicting mourners and images of destroyed locations, as well as military equipment at the hands of Ukraine or the West, even to the point where some of this equipment would be made to look like it was Western-supplied,” Defense Department press secretary John Kirby said Thursday during a briefing at the Pentagon.
Such a Russian disinformation effort would be “right out of their playbook,” Kirby said, noting that most activity of that nature is approved at the highest levels of the Russian government. Kirby said the Biden administration felt it was important, when possible, “to call it out.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/02/03/russia-ukraine-staged-attack/
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