The Russian embassy in New Zealand is using social media posts to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, reigniting a call for Russia’s ambassador to be expelled.
The embassy of the Russian Federation in New Zealand, headquartered in Wellington, has ramped up the frequency of its posts since Russia launched its attack on Ukraine on February 24.
A Facebook post by the embassy on March 10 claims a Russian strike on a maternity and children's hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was evacuated and being used by Ukrainian forces as a firing site.
Mariupol’s city council said three people, including a child, were killed, and 17 people, including children, were injured. Videos and photos of the aftermath show injured pregnant women and children amid the rubble.
An embassy Facebook post on March 11 accused the United States and Nato of conducting military biological programmes in Ukraine, something the US has denied.
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said it strongly disagreed with the Russian government’s position on its unjustified and illegal attack on Ukraine, including its attempts to spread disinformation on social media to create a false pretence for the invasion.
“While we can’t prevent another government from posting on social media, we encourage anyone who sees potentially harmful misinformation on social media to not spread or share it,” Mahuta said.
New Zealand had made its position on the illegal invasion clear to the Russian government, including through the ambassador to New Zealand, Georgii Zuev, she said.
“The Government has suspended bilateral foreign ministry consultations with Russia and further diplomatic responses will remain under consideration.”
In response to questions from Stuff the Russian embassy said it believed New Zealanders deserved to know an alternative viewpoint.
“You should be well aware of the fact that the anti-Russian disinformation campaign has long become a shibboleth of time, which is especially true of the current situation in Ukraine.”
It did not provide any evidence to support its claims about the hospital bombing or biological weapon programmes. The BBC said its disinformation team had found evidence that contradicted the hospital allegations.
National’s foreign affairs spokesman, Gerry Brownlee, two weeks ago called for the Government to expel the Russian ambassador to New Zealand.
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On Tuesday he told Stuff the Russian embassy was using social media to disseminate Vladimir Putin’s justification of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and New Zealand should not tolerate that.
“It raises the question of why we would have a representative of Mr Putin’s regime here in New Zealand, using social media platforms to spread their propaganda,” Brownlee said.
“He should be asked to leave the country.”
Brownlee said the embassy’s posts were playing to “the gullible and stupid”.
The Government should be asking social media companies to remove posts containing such misinformation, he said.
“It’s completely inappropriate for there to be any justification for what is essentially a completely unprovoked attack on innocent people.”
There was no editorial control on what could be posted on social media, he said. “The social media companies need to step in and decide whether or not they want to be party to spreading that sort of misinformation.”
After the 2019 Christchurch terror attack, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern initiated the establishment of the Christchurch Call, which outlines commitments from governments and online service providers intended to address the issue of terrorist content
Brownlee says that what Russia is doing in Ukraine falls into the same category as terrorism, and action should be taken by Ardern based on the premises of the Christchurch Call.
“Her positioning on this will be a test of commitment to that Christchurch Call.”
Ardern’s office did not respond to Stuff’s questions by the time of publication.
A Meta spokesman did not address specific questions about what action it would take in regard to the embassy posting misinformation on Facebook. Instead, he provided a link to a media statement that said Meta was taking steps to fight the spread of misinformation.
“We’re removing content that violates our policies and working with third-party fact-checkers in the region to debunk false claims. When they rate something as false, we move this content lower in feed so fewer people see it.”
New Zealand Ukrainian Anton Ognyev said the Russian embassy’s propaganda was dangerous and had the potential to make Russians in New Zealand turn on Ukrainians in New Zealand.
He could not understand how an embassy in the middle of Wellington was able to get away with posting propaganda.
“They just keep doing it like they are in the middle of Moscow.”
