and the western Balkans for NATO.) Pushing different themes in different countries, which are often contradictory but all serve the Russian government's interests: presenting itself as a liberal alternative in the United States, but as the flagship of resurgent nationalist parties in Europe. (Patrick Hilsman) warning domestic Russian audiences of the dangers of COVID-19 and the need for preventive measures, while saturating English, German, French, Spanish, and Arabic-language platforms with COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories. RT (and other Russian propaganda media) may broadcast different "themes or messages", different accounts of "contested events", and may change their account (their "falsehood or misrepresentation") if it is "exposed or ... not well received", moving "on to a new (though not necessarily more plausible) explanation". An example being Russian media explanations for killing of 283 passengers and 15 crew from the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on 17 July 2014 while the plane was flying over pro-Russian separatist-controlled territory in Ukraine. The Dutch Safety Board (DSB) and the Dutch-led joint investigation team (JIT), concluded that the airliner was downed by a Russian Buk surface-to-air missile launched from the separatist-controlled territory, and American, German, Dutch and Australia investigations held Russia responsible. Russian media (LifeNews) first reported separatists had shot down a "Ukrainian Air Force An-26 transport plane" with a missile, calling it "a new victory for the Donetsk militia". Later, after it was clear the plane was civilian, offering a variety of theories of how the Ukrainian military was responsible. One theory offered and later discarded by RT was that the airliner may have been shot down by Ukraine in a failed attempt to assassinate Vladimir Putin, in a plot which was organised by Ukraine's "Western backers". (However Putin's flight route was hundreds of kilometres north of Ukraine.) Disinformation and conspiracy theories Academics, fact-checkers, and news reporters (including some current and former RT reporters) have identified RT as a purveyor of disinformation and conspiracy theories. In 2010, The Economist magazine observed that RT's programming, while sometimes interesting and unobjectionable, and sometimes "hard-edged", also presents "wild conspiracy theories" that can be regarded as "kooky". A 2013 article in Der Spiegel said that RT "uses a chaotic mixture of conspiracy theories and crude propaganda", pointing to a program that "mutated" the Boston Marathon bombing into a U.S. government conspiracy. The launch of RT UK was the subject of much comment in the British press in late