Internet/social media
Saturday 23 September 2017
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Margarita Simonyan and RT
RT's chief editor
“The American establishment’s war against our journalists is dedicated to all the starry-eyed who still believed in freedom of speech. It was killed by those who invented it."
Read more...The U.S. probe of RT and Sputnik to determine whether they must register as foreign agents is a lawful process befitting a functioning democracy. As registered foreign agents, the outlets would still be able to broadcast without censorship – a right protected under the U.S. Constitution and laws. -
Sergey Kislyak
Former Russian Ambassador to the U.S.
“I have worked for years in the American (relations) field, and I can responsibly say that we did everything, simply everything, to maintain normal cooperation.”
Read more...Russia’s own actions endangering global security caused the deterioration of relations with the United States as well as with other countries. The conditions for lifting sanctions and returning to “normal” cooperation have been clearly presented to Russia but Moscow ignores its obligation to help maintain global security. -
Dmitry Peskov
press secretary for Russian President
”This is not about any kind of censorship. But, of course, in providing grants, the state has the right to designate certain topics that are of particular interest to the state. But to call this some kind of manifestation of censorship would be wrong."
Read more...President Vladimir Putin and his press secretary Dmitry Peskov insist that the arrest of a famed director Kirill Serebrennikov has nothing to do with politics or censorship. The involvement of the FSB’s 2nd Service calls their claim into question. -
Russian Embassy to the United Kingdom
“The civil war is over, that is between the Syrians. But foreign jihadists, who invaded Syria in 2012, still have to be defeated.”
Read more...Russia’s embassy to the United Kingdom claims that the Syrian civil war is over. So why do regime attacks on rebel-held areas continue? -
Press Service of the Russian Southern Military District
"[N]o one from the command ever met with [Viktor] Ageyev and couldn't have signed a contract with him...he signed the so-called contract...in Luhansk, where there have not been and are no active Russian servicemen."
Read more...While the Russian military denies it has troops in Ukraine and that Ageyev was on active duty, he testified that he was, as did his mother, friends and a fellow serviceman, and his ID does not show a discharge. -
Russian Embassy to the United Kingdom
“Racist posters in Kiev. Russian language equal to infection and bad IQ. Food for thought.”
Read more...Despite Russian embassy claim, no such posters have been spotted in Ukrainian capital outside of an exhibition at a Kyiv art gallery in 2015. -
TASS
Russian state news agency
“Iranian television on Thursday distributed photographs confirming the death of the head of the Islamic State terrorist group, Abu Baqr al-Baghdadi.”
Read more...Russia’s state news agency TASS reported that Iranian TV had published photographic proof that Islamic State leader Abu Baqr al-Baghdadi was killed in a Russian airstrike in May. In fact, the same pictures had been circulating around the Internet since 2014. -
Vladimir Putin
Russian President
“Those are [IS] militants” [Vladimir Putin] “You wouldn’t want to join [IS] if you saw that” [Oliver Stone].
Read more...While Putin evidently believed the video was taken from recent Russian air strikes in Syria, in fact, it is a clip evidently of U.S. air strikes in Afghanistan released in 2009. -
TASS
Russian government news agency
“According to the research, 27% of its participants regard the Russian leader with confidence, believing that he ‘is doing the right things on the world stage’."
Read more...Russia’s TASS state news agency misrepresented the results of the Pew Research Center’s 2017 global survey in a way favorable to Vladimir Putin. The actual results of the survey concerning Putin were the opposite of what TASS reported. -
Vladimir Putin
Russian President
"We have hundreds of television companies and radio companies. The state doesn't control them at all, it is simply impossible."
Read more...While the state does not own all TV or engage in prior censorship, TV stations deemed too critical of the Kremlin have been forced off the air; large opposition protests are ignored, causing critics to turn to YouTube as an alternative. -
Channel One; Channel Five; NTV
Russian TV channels
Major Russian state-own TV channels have repeatedly included as a guest on their flagship talk shows someone identified as Greg Vainer, a U.S. journalist and member of the Republican Party’s national committee who “represents the American point of view” on global issues. Vainer’s opponents invariably take apart his arguments, the result being that the pro-Russian side always prevails in the debate.
Read more...Greg Vainer’s real name is Gregory Vinnikov. He was born and raised in the Soviet Union, moved to the U.S. in 1980 and then moved back to Russia around 2009. In the U.S., he left no mark as a journalist but, after launching a travel agency in New York, was sued by creditors at least five times. In addition, former clients accuse him of stealing their money. He has never been a member of the Republican National Committee; in fact, it seems he has never even registered to vote in the United States. -
Sergey Lavrov
Foreign Minister, Russia
"But in fact in this case (the VOA Russian service reporter) was lying because by the time he made these statements…Mr. Peskov and Ms. Zakharova and representatives of the Foreign Affairs Committees had spoken."
Read more...Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zahkarova apologized to a VOA reporter for incorrect remarks made by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a press conference on Tuesday, in which he misrepresented Voice of America reporting in a way that served to undermine the agency's credibility.