Propaganda during the past week, here’s what Lavrov, Petkovic and “Večernje Novosti” disinformed

Kosovo and Ukraine have been the target of Serbian and Russian propaganda over the past week. Petar Petkovic, director of the so-called Office for Kosovo, and the portal “Večernje Novosti” disinformed about Kosovo. While Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov disinformed about Crimea.

The portal “Večernje Novosti” recently published an article entitled “They want to fine Serbian families with 8,000 euros!” Prishtina plans to sanction all citizens who boycotted the last census in Kosovo.” This article contains a number of disinformation and inaccurate claims about the alleged abuse of registration.

“Pristina institutions have misused the registration and included questions about ‘victims’ and ‘war damage’ in the questionnaire to provide material for a lawsuit against Belgrade, with which they are constantly threatening.” The data was requested up to June 1999 and this means that Serbian suffering was deliberately ignored, since all the killings of Serbs, kidnappings and thefts of property took place after this period, i.e. after the arrival of the international community in Kosovo… The so-called “The Kosovo Statistical Agency did not even make the slightest effort to ensure that our people at least understand the questions, but the goal was only to officially implement the law – that the survey was supposedly also in Serbian,” according to the Serb The portal has misinformed and tried to deceive the public, as it is known that the registration included all cities of Kosovo and called to register all municipalities.

Officials from Kosovo’s statistical office have trained Serbian census enumerators and supervisors to ensure that the Serbian community is included in the census. Meanwhile, it was official Belgrade that appealed to Kosovo Serbs not to register. In order not to see the exact number of the Serbian community voting in the Serbian elections without any obstacles and giving victory to Vučić and his party.

On the other hand, the director of the so-called Office for Kosovo disinformed that the government of Albin Kurti allegedly “systematically obstructed the dialog and committed ethnically motivated violence against Serbs, especially in the north of Kosovo”.

This statement of his was an attempt to use disinformation to cover up the fact that the Serbs who are leaving Kosovo are doing so mainly because of pressure from the Serbian List, official Belgrade or because of the criminal past in Kosovo.

The Serb community in Kosovo has rights guaranteed by the constitution, which guarantees the rights of all minorities, while the country’s authorities continue to work to improve conditions for all citizens, including Serbs.

There is no verified report to substantiate Petkovic’s claims of systematic violence against Serbs by the Kosovar authorities.

While Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov falsely drew a parallel between Kosovo and Crimea, he attempted through disinformation to equate Russia’s violent annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 with Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008. He accused the West and the UN of “double standards”./G.Venhari-The Geopost/.