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Some of the disinformation is produced by state-run media outlets, and some has been put out by the governments themselves. A website run by Russias Defense Ministry, for instance, highlighted the conspiracy theory that billionaire Bill Gates played a role in creating the virus.

Before the virus spread outside of China, per the report, the overlap between the three governments messaging was fairly narrow: They all defended President Nicolas Maduro's government in Venezuela, which the U.S. and other Western powers do not recognize as legitimate; and argued the U.S. fails to uphold its commitments to international agreements.

But by February 2020, according to the report, the messaging began to converge. The report argues this came and accelerated as those governments have struggled to keep public opinion in their own countries on their side.

One core message has been that China is a strong global health leader and that the United States, meanwhile, is a weak ally. Lea Gabrielle, who helms the GEC, told POLITICO that China has also let Russia's propaganda efforts targeting the U.S. spread through its country where the Beijing governments internet censorship is notorious and relentless.

What we saw as the health crisis started to come under control in China is that the CCP really started pushing a concerted effort to try to re-shape that narrative, she said, using the acronym for the Chinese Communist Party. So in a short period of time the CCP went from letting Russian disinformation claiming the U.S. was the source of the virus proliferate in Chinese social media, to raising questions on state media about the origins source, to promoting disinformation that the U.S. was the source of the virus.

The Chinese governments messaging is both defensive and offensive, she said.

At the same time, we saw Beijing unleashing a steady drumbeat of pro-PRC content across its global media networks and also from its overseas missions and that included increasingly vocal criticism of how democratic countries were responding to the crisis, she said.

In response to a comment request, a Chinese embassy spokesperson pointed to an interview between the Chinese ambassador to the U.S. and Axios on HBO. In the interview, the ambassador declined to explain why a spokesperson for Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs promoted the claim the the U.S. was responsible for the virus. The spokesperson also flagged an interview the ambassador did with Ian Bremmer where he intimated the United States is trying to take political advantage of other peoples sufferings.

A spokesperson for Irans mission to the U.N. said the U.S. is responsible for any propaganda or disinformation about the pandemic, not Iran.

It seems, it became a part of the U.S.s domestic campaign, and unfortunately the U.S. medias are full with stories of lies and disinformation spread by the administration in the lead up to the virus creating a tragic pandemic in almost every state in America, the spokesperson emailed. Blaming others for its own mistakes is a hallmark of this U.S. administration.

A spokesperson for Russias embassy in the U.S. flagged an embassy tweet claiming the country has not spread disinformation, as well as a Facebook post criticizing the Department of Defense for accusing Russia of disinformation efforts. In these conditions, frantic #Russophobia persists in American mainstream media, obtaining inaccurate information from such a briefings by the Pentagon and the U.S. Department of State, the post added.

The State Department report pointed to a March 10 article in the Global Times, a property of Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece Peoples Daily. The article argued that Chinas image as a responsible world power has been further strengthened, rather than dented by the pandemic. Two weeks later, the Iran-based Tasnim News Agency which describes its mission as [d]efending the Islamic Revolution against negative media propaganda campaign highlighted comments from the countrys top general thanking China for humanitarian moves related to the pandemic.

Whos helping fight the virus and who isnt has been a core focus for governments and citizens around the world. On March 3, a media company controlled by Russias armed forces ZVEZDA ran a story headlined Bill Gates, a secret laboratory and a conspiracy of pharmaceutical companies: who can benefit from coronavirus.

The piece intimates that Gates had foreknowledge of the virus and claims that only people of the Mongoloid race can contract Covid-19.

In addition to flagging the Russian government's intimation that Gates may have been read in on the viruss spread, the report cited material from all three governments calling coronavirus a U.S. bioweapon. It noted the infamous tweet from Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lijian Zhao touting an article claiming the novel coronavirus could have come from the U.S., as well as a Russia Today article highlighting a claim from the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that the virus could be an American bioweapon. The RT story noted that theres still no official proof of that conspiracy theory.

Analysts outside the U.S. government are also tracking the global message wars. Camille Francois, the chief innovation officer at the network analysis firm Graphika, said her company has seen one of the same major themes that the State Department report highlighted.

We have observed both public diplomacy and covert campaigns originating from Iran, China, and Russia converge around Covid-19 narratives, particularly in blaming the U.S. for its own response to the crisis and current role in geopolitical affairs, she said.

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State report: Russian, Chinese, and Iranian disinformation narratives echoing each other - POLITICO