Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the United States of “blatant hypocrisy” for allowing prisoners to fight the Los Angeles wildfires. Russia’s state-owned news agency RIA Novosti quoted Zakharova on January 12 as saying that the use of prisoners as firefighters is no different from China’s use of forced labor, which the US has condemned for years.
“Hundreds of prisoners have been recruited to fight wildfires in Southern California… In recent years, US officials have repeatedly criticized China for using forced labor, particularly in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region In… [W]Sick Congress bans California government, private companies, and ordinary Americans from using prison labor to fight fires.”
The claim is false.
In California, prisoners volunteer to join fire brigades If they meet the program’s qualifications, which consider physical fitness and behavioral records. Participation is completely optional, ensuring that only willing and eligible prisoners participate in the program.
he is the opposite China’s use of forced laborSince 2017, China has arbitrarily detained 1.8 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. Detainees face torture, political indoctrination, and serious human rights abuses in extrajudicial mass detention camps and formal detention facilities. The use of forced labor in China violates international human rights conventions that the government has signed.
US Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention ActIt aims to prevent US entities from funding forced labor involving ethnic minorities in China’s Xinjiang region.
Following his press officer’s false claim, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov used the Los Angeles fire to repeat one of the Kremlin’s key propaganda narratives, aimed at convincing Americans that Ukraine would defend itself against Russia. By subsidizing the U.S., the U.S. government is impoverishing its own citizens.
Lavrov, speaking at a January 14 press conference on the results of Russian diplomacy in 2024, said that the Americans had “burned almost all of California” and estimated the losses at $250 billion, which is “comparable” to what the US did to Ukraine. America has “poverty at every turn”
The US has not yet announced preliminary damage estimates there, but Lavrov cited unofficial figures as accurate. AccuWeather, a weather and impact analysis companyWhich predicted an economic cost of up to $275 billion.
America pledged ukraine approximately $66.2 billion security assistance Between 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, and February 2022 when Moscow started the war, and since then some $66.5 billion.
Lavrov’s claim that the US government is impoverishing its own citizens by giving aid to Ukraine is a divisive topic in American society, partly due to Russian propaganda influence,
However, experts argue that the vast majority of Ukraine aid is being reinvested domestically, in contrast to draining the US economy. Boosting defense manufacturing industry and sustaining jobs,
Russian propaganda took advantage of the Ukrainian perspective on the Los Angeles fires and tried to spread false allegations of misuse of Western aid against Ukraine’s military command.
Russia’s newly emerged group of social media influencers has been nicknamed “Milbloggers”, as most of its members are either Russian fighters or pro-war journalists from war zones in Ukraine, who have helped create and spread such false claims. Has played an important role.
The Russian Telegram channel ‘Voniez Obozrevatel’ (Military Observer) alleged on January 11 that eight mansions worth a total of $90 million owned by high-ranking Ukrainian military officers were destroyed in the Los Angeles wildfires.
“According to Ukrainian sources, 8 mansions owned by high-ranking Ukrainian military personnel burned down during a massive wildfire in Los Angeles. These properties have a total value of $90 million and were reportedly purchased with funds provided by the West as part of economic aid to Kiev after the war began.
Russian state-controlled news sites and media outlets, including Gazeta.ru, Lenta.ru, EADaily, News.ru, Konsomolsky Pravda, Tsargrad, and Rossiysky Gazeta, used the post in their news coverage.
Multiple fact-checking outlets And even some Russian news media dismissed the post as meritless and unsubstantiated.
Yet the claim about the alleged burning of Ukrainian generals’ luxury villa in Los Angeles spread on X over the following days, receiving millions of views and thousands of reposts.
In another disinformation plot, on January 13–14, Russian state-owned news sites tried to undermine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to send Ukrainian firefighters to Los Angeles to help extinguish wildfires .
State-owned RIA Novosti, RT and others used an ”
Russian news outlets generalized the post, speculating that it indicated that Ukrainian journalists oppose Ukraine’s fight for independence and that Ukrainians are desperate to leave the country.
In fact, Reporters Without Borders revealed Diana Panchenko as Russian propagandist Working for the Kremlin.
