On June 1st, a series of blasts at an explosive factory in the Russian city of Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod region, injured at least 79, with 16 hospitalized and damaging approximately 200 buildings.
According to more recent data, 628 residential buildings, 32 schools, 55 kindergartens, 15 cultural facilities, 10 sports facilities and 9 health facilities received some damages from the explosions. 89 people were injured: 71 were provided with outpatient care, 18 were hospitalized.
The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case under part 1 of Article 217 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Violation of industrial safety requirements of production facilities.” Criminalists of the central administration of the TFR were sent to Dzerzhinsk to investigate the causes of the incident. The plant noted that its general director was removed the day before due to problems with industrial safety, which were recorded in April.
“In Dzerzhinsk, as well as the villages of Pyra, Zhelnino, Kordon Lesnoy, a state of emergency was declared. This allowed us to quickly bring in equipment and personnel to quickly rectify consequences of the explosion at the State Research Institute “Crystal”, the mayor of the city Ivan Noskov said.
This was the third blast suffered by the explosives-maker over the past year. In August 2018, five workers were killed in an explosion at the site, and in April an explosion destroyed a one-story building but caused no injuries.
On June 6th, the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region Gleb Nikitin said that fearmongering may be on the rise following the incident in Dzerzhinsk.
He specifically referred to information circulating social media from so-called “very reliable sources”, claiming that a “chemical catastrophe” happened in the city. These claims were accompanied by calls to leave the city as soon as possible.
“Of course, this kind of information is deliberately thrown in order to sow panic, and it certainly falls under the law on fake news. I believe that this is the case when it is absolutely appropriate to consider the possibility of its use. In any case, we will carefully examine this issue,” the governor said.
According to Nizhegorodskaya Pravda, the following messages were sent by various Facebook users on the day of the tragedy on June 1st:
“Father works in the FSB. Today he was urgently summoned to a meeting. He returned late and explained nothing. He just told us to collect our things and run to the grocery store to buy supplies for two weeks. Now we are going somewhere far away from the city. I do not know what is happening, but it seems to me that it has begun …”
According to the publication, the copypasta was clearly intended to sow panic and circulated social media throughout the entire June 1st.
And its source was allegedly registered in Ukraine. Which wouldn’t be a surprise since Kiev is one of the most active parties to seek provocations with and within Russia.
There have been multiple reports on how Ukraine uses its SOF (the Special Operations Forces) for psychological operations on the territory of Russia and eastern Ukraine. In particular, the SOF units involved int these activity are the 16th center (military unit A1182, village of Guiva, Zhytomyr); 72nd center (military unit A4398 Brovary, Kiev); 74th center (military unit A1277, Lviv); 83rd center (military unit A2455, Odessa).
Emblems of the Ukrainain SOF units involved in these operations.
They provide support and distribution of protest moods on the territory of Russia, sowing panic in case of emergencies; support of the actions of the Russian opposition; to discredit the Russian state apparatus.
This isn’t a separate case. For example, on March 25th, 2018, a fire at a shopping mall in Kemerovo killed 64, 41 of which children.
Many fake reports originating from Ukraine and Turkey surreounded the case. These reports included fake news regarding the death doll, developments surrounding the tragedy and accusing the government of “hiding the truth” and disrespecting the affected families.
“It was not without the so-called well-wishers: those who knowingly distributed such [false] information. We have established the origin of fake reports, they mainly came from two countries: Ukraine and Turkey. It is another question why [it came] from these countries but information about 300-400-500 dead originated this way,” the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
Fear of the fake news…
We should all fear fake news, such as shouting FIRE in a crowded building.
Any joker can shout fire
Its not a joke when it causes panic and injury.
Russians, and indeed the rest of the world, should understand that if they read/heard it on US mainstream media or “social?” media in the US from the likes of Fakebook, Twatter or Ghoulgo, it’s to be ignored and deemed fake; for anything of factual matter not conforming with the propaganda will be censored one way or another.