BTRP Articles

June 7, 2024

Russia Spreads Disinformation to Cover Up Its Use of Chemical Weapons in Ukraine

In May 2024, the United States imposed new sanctions on three Russian government entities and four Russian companies in response to its full-scale war and use of chemical weapons against Ukraine. The United States determined Russia used the chemical weapon chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops and riot control agents (RCA) as a method of warfare in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

March 8, 2024

Disarming Disinformation: Our Shared Responsibility

“There is truth and there are lies. Lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and responsibility, as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders – leaders who have pledged to honor our Constitution and protect our nation — to defend the truth and to defeat the lies.” JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Oct. 19, 2023

Exporting Pro-Kremlin Disinformation: The Case of Nova Resistência in Brazil

New Resistance is a quasi-paramilitary neo-fascist organization operating in South America, Europe, and North America with deep connections to entities and individuals within Russia’s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem. Along with the English-language propaganda website Fort Russ News (FRN) and the authoritarian pseudo-think tank Center for Syncretic Studies (CSS) – both dormant since February 2022 – New Resistance was formed by a pro-Kremlin disinformation and propaganda network and was inspired by Aleksandr Dugin, a U.S.-sanctioned Russian “philosopher” and the principal proponent of an anti-Western, Russia-led Eurasian imperialist movement.

May 23, 2023

Protecting the Alliance Against the Threat of Cognitive Warfare

Cognitive Warfare includes activities conducted in synchronization with other Instruments of Power, to affect attitudes and behaviours, by influencing, protecting, or disrupting individual, group, or population level cognition, to gain an advantage over an adversary. Designed to modify perceptions of reality, whole-of-society manipulation has become a new norm, with human cognition shaping to be a critical realm of warfare.

Nov. 3, 2022

U.N. Security Council rejects Russia's call to probe debunked U.S.-Ukraine biological weapons claims

The U.N.'s 15-nation Security Council voted down on Wednesday a proposal by Russia to create a commission to investigate Moscow's unsubstantiated claims of a joint U.S.-Ukrainian "military biological" program. Russia has leveled allegations since March that programs in Ukraine sponsored by the U.S. Defense Department were in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention, an international law regulating weaponized toxins.

Nov. 2, 2022

Security Council Rejects Text to Investigate Complaint Concerning Non-Compliance of Biological Weapons Convention by Ukraine, United States

The Security Council today failed to adopt a resolution put forth by the Russian Federation to set up a commission consisting of all members of the Council to investigate its complaint about the non-compliance by the United States and Ukraine with their obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention.

Nov. 2, 2022

UN Security Council denies Russia call for bio weapons probe

The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected Russia’s attempt to establish a commission to investigate its unfounded claims that Ukraine and the United States are carrying out “military biological” activities that violate the convention prohibiting the use of biological weapons.

Sept. 12, 2022

Debunking Russian Lies About Biolabs at Upcoming U.N. Meetings

Before Russia invaded Ukraine in February, its diplomatic missions began circulating some particularly fantastical lies. For example, the United States was using Ukrainian laboratories to develop biological weapons that would be spread by specially trained migratory birds and diseased bats.