DISINFO: White Helmets produce another fake chemical attack video
SUMMARY
The Russian Reconciliation Centre for Syria stated on Wednesday that a group of up to 15 terrorists had attempted to carry out a chemical attack in Syria’s Idlib province. Earlier in the day, the Reconciliation Centre stated that the White Helmets had finished filming a staged provocation after delivering 400 litres of a chemical agent to the site.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin conspiracy theory painting the White Helmets as terrorists and shifting blame for chemical attacks in Syria away from Damascus. Shortly after the April 2018 chemical attack in Douma, the Russian military staff in Syria began publishing regular "updates" regarding the provocations, false-flag attacks, and video hoaxes which the White Helmets supposedly perpetrate across rebel-held Syrian territory. These updates are often accompanied by detailed production notes concerning the actors' salaries, the number of videos shot (e.g. "at least nine"), image quality, target audience (e.g. the United Nations, mainstream outlets, social media), and so forth. Despite their apparently limitless insight into the workings of the White Helmets, Russian army officials have yet to provide a single piece of evidence in support of their predictions, or evidence confirming the existence of any fake chemical attack videos at all. See this fact-check explaining why the production of a convincing fabrication of this sort would be a virtually impossible feat.