Russia carries out the coronadiplomation, understood as medical and humanitarian aid during the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Agnieszka Legucka, PhD from Polish Institute of International Affairs, Russian disinformation during the coronadiplomation has significantly larger reach. In the perdion February-July 2020 Russians were helping about 30 countries but the most important and visible once were Italy and the United States. What really worked for Russia and China is the fact that their aid gained far more popularity than such aid of e.g. United States towards China and Russia. In fact, Russian tried to promote their image as a good actor who helps while for example such Poland, which also became a target of disinformation attack, doesn’t. While Russians were sending their medical equipment to Italy, also in Polish media the news was spread that Poland had stopped a huge transport of medical masks to Italy.
The objective of coronadiplomation disinformative actions are, on one hand, to show the success of the Russian Federation, which manages perfectly the fight against pandemic and, on the other hand, to discredit the West, which could not solve the problem without China’s and Russia’s help. At the same time, they cannot count on Wester allies. It was also meant to serve internal purposes – to show in Russian media how well the two countries were managing the crisis.
WP
