False: The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a "smokescreen" meant to distract the public from the New World Order.

By: Laura Vitelli
March 7 2022

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This is an instance of a well-known conspiracy theory, and there is no evidence to support it. Several posts circulating on social media are falsely claiming that the Russian military invasion of Ukraine is, in fact, a distraction from a number of other current events. Some social media users are claiming in particular that a supposed global elite are manipulating the war to distract from what they claim is a "failed" plan to enact an authoritarian program of control, and bring about a New World Order. Some of these posts suggest that the invasion of Ukraine is a distraction from events, such as the ongoing Epstein investigations, as well as conspiratorial views of the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine programs. Others argue that Russia has invaded Ukraine to fight against the New World Order. The New World Order theory claims the existence of a global elite, who are secretly responsible for all major events covered by the global news media. According to these narratives, these so-called "elites" have been attempting to establish a New World Order through various means, with the intent of bringing the entire world under a central authoritarian control and overhauling the global economy to introduce a system of entirely virtual commerce. This conspiracy theory is well documented and has seen a major increase in popularity on social media throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Numerous social media users have made a wide range of false claims under the guise of the New World Order theory, such as the notion that the COVID-19 virus was either fake or planned, and that the vaccines are part of some sort of nefarious program designed to either "brainwash" or injure the population. It is a common rhetorical tactic in conspiracy circles to misrepresent information to support conspiracy narratives. There is no firm evidence that the New World Order conspiracy theory is true; a fact reflected in the disparate and often contradictory claims made by the theory’s followers. Therefore, we have marked the claim as false.