The Russia watchRussia barred from spy-attack inquiry; Russia & AI; Facebook suspends Russian accounts, and more

Russian bid for joint inquiry into England spy poisoning fails (Anthony Deutsch, Reuters)
Russia’s call for a joint inquiry to be held into the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in England failed on Wednesday when it was outvoted 15-6 at a meeting of the global chemical weapons watchdog.

Russia’s ‘disinformation campaign’ on Salisbury attack follows familiar script (Jack Barton, WikiTribune)
Since fingers pointed toward Russia after an attack against a former double agent and his daughter in Britain, dozens of alternative theories have been proposed by figures linked to the Kremlin. Experts told WikiTribune the allegations fit an established pattern of Russian disinformation campaigns that should be countered with the transparent use of facts.

Facebook suspends 273 accounts and pages linked to Russian misinformation agency (Adi Robertson, The Verge)
Facebook says it has suspended 70 Facebook accounts, 138 Facebook pages, and 65 Instagram accounts controlled by the Internet Research Agency. Chief security officer Alex Stamos announced the news today, posting a handful of sample ads and pages that it says were run by the Russia-linked disinformation outfit. “The IRA has consistently used inauthentic accounts to deceive and manipulate people,” writes Stamos. “It’s why we remove every account we find that is linked to the organization — whether linked to activity in the US, Russia or elsewhere.” Facebook has also removed any ads linked to these accounts.

U.K. urged to counter ‘disinformation’ from Russia over novichok (Steven Morris and Caroline Bannock, Guardian)
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon says government must give more details of why it is sure Moscow was behind Salisbury attack

Russia must cooperate with chemical weapons watchdog, says EU (Patrick Wintour, Guardian)
Moscow told to provide full disclosure to investigation into Salisbury spy poisoning

What is the Internet Research Agency? Facebook shuts hundreds of accounts linked to Russian troll factory (Jason Murdock, Newsweek)
Facebook has removed more than 270 accounts it deteremined to be controlled by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russia-based “troll farm” accused of meddling in democracy by spreading propaganda.

In AI, Russia is hustling to catch up (Samuel Bendett, Defense One)
Putin is spurring frenetic efforts to marshal the country’s academic and industrial resources for breakthroughs in the field — and just might achieve them.

Trudeau cites smear campaign against Freeland in justifying banishment of Russian diplomats (Murray Brewster, CBC)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has linked the recent expulsion of four Russian diplomats to last year’s alleged smear campaign directed against Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.