Original article (in Montenegrin) was published on 13/01/2022
As the tensions between the United States and Russia are growing due to the situation concerning Ukraine, the number of fake news is increasing as well.
Ahead of the NATO-Russia Council meeting, which has not been met for two years, the Serbian website “Nacionalist” published the news that Russia will be invited to join the largest military-political alliance. This is followed by the title:
“Information that resonated – America will offer Russia entry into NATO!”
As stated in the first sentence, this was declared by the American military analyst Rick Rozoff. However, further in the text, it is pointed out that the statement was made by the former Pentagon official, Joseph Bosco, published in the article that Rozoff commented on.
“The founder of the Stop NATO organization, Rick Rozoff, considering this topic in his article, called this initiative absurd. At the same time, he did not rule out the possibility that such a thought could appear among some politicians in the United States. This theory is indirectly confirmed by the continuation of the work of the Russia-NATO Council. However, the negotiations may be complicated because Washington, accustomed to acting from a position of strength, will try to set conditions here, calling on Moscow to join the Alliance”.
Nacionalist also states that this “plan” is related to serious reform of Russia, and that Washington is ready to approve a five-year probationary period for Moscow for “significant changes in its economic and political structure”.
Who published what?
While searching the Internet, we came across an article published by Bosco on January 4 this year, on the American website “The Hill”. In an extensive analysis of the current situation in Russia-Ukraine-US relations, Bosco said that in the negotiations, Putin “could pull out of his sleeve the idea he put forward in early 2000: Russia’s membership in NATO”.
So, this is the position of Joseph Bosco, who is now an associate at the Institute for Korean-American Studies and a member of the advisory board of the Global Taiwan Institute. This was analyzed by Rick Rozoff on his website, sharing his own view of the situation and the possible outcome. In a text entitled “NATO can offer membership to Ukraine, reformed Russia”, Rozoff points out that some kind of “exchange between NATO and Russia can be expected, in which the former gets Ukraine and the latter NATO”, where he cites Turkey as a mediator.
Analyzing the text, we did not find the statements and claims of Rozoff to which Nacionalist refers.
The texts were published at a time when tensions are growing between the United States and Russia over Ukraine, which is why a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council was organized on January 12 this year. The differences between the two powers are difficult to bridge, which the Secretary-General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg said after the meeting. He previously denied the option according to which the Alliance will not expand to Eastern Europe, thus rejecting the main request of Russian President Vladimir Putin to calm tensions with Ukraine.
When everything is summed up, it is clear that the information published by Nacionalist – that America will offer Russia entry into NATO, has no basis in reality. The information was placed as an exclusive and based on the position of Joseph Bosco and the comments on that position of Rick Rosoff, who is described as an analyst and founder of the “Stop NATO” organization. Searching the sites, we were not able to reach that organization, but only the sites where Rozoff’s texts are published.
Therefore, we give this announcement a rating of “misinformation”.
The rating “misinformation” is given to a media report that contains a “mixture” of facts and inaccurate or semi-true content. In such cases, the media does not need to be aware of the inaccurate information published along with the truth. Also, this rating is given to reports that have false attributions or titles that do not reflect the text in terms of the accuracy of information.
