Russia Responds To US Conspiracy Theories As Questionable ‘Chemical Attack’ Video Already Emerges

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

In response to US and NATO claims that Russia isn’t withdrawing troops from areas near Ukraine, the Kremlin said Thursday that troop pullbacks take time and dismissed the Western skepticism as “unfounded accusations.”

“It’s clear the grouping for the exercises was built up over many weeks, and it is of course impossible to withdraw it in a single day. They can’t just take off and fly away … it takes time,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “As always unfounded accusations.”

Russia announced Tuesday that some troops in Crimea were returning to their permanent bases. On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry released a video that it said showed military equipment crossing the Crimean bridge from Crimea into Russia as part of the pullback, but the US dismissed it as “propaganda.”

Russian officials have said that troops currently in Belarus will return to Russia after drills conclude on February 20th. Peskov said again on Thursday that there are no plans to extend the deployment in Belarus.

The US continues to accuse Russia of plotting an invasion of Ukraine. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin claimed Thursday that despite Moscow’s announced pullback, Russia was still amassing forces near Ukraine.

And according to the latest by CNN, the US is basing it’s alarmist predictions on a “bleak” intelligence assessment:

The assessment — described as “bleak” by the senior official — indicates Russia could attack in the coming days. The US still expects any Russian invasion to be prefaced by a false flag operation, another US official said. 

“However, US officials caution they do not know if Putin has made a final decision to invade and note he may delay action or not order it at all,” CNN notes. And importantly, “Earlier assessments forecasting military action by Russia this week did not bear out.”

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With the US now telegraphing its bizarre Russian false flag ‘chemical attack’ scenario, this seems an open invitation for anyone on either side to circulate any wild claim or videos, or whatever provocation they want which they can use toward their ends, such as the following highly dubious example…

#Breaking pro-separatist and Russian news agencies are circulating the news that they foiled an attempt by Ukraine to blow a chlorine gas tank within separatist territory

They released this alleged helmet cam footage from

(highly dubious) pic.twitter.com/8e3PFmEAE2

— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) February 18, 2022