Military
Monday 16 July 2018
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Russian Foreign Ministry Twitter Account
Official social media account
“While the useless military bloc #НАТО (NATO) accuses us of provocative activities and continues to gnash its teeth in Brussels, we are preparing to watch #ЧМ2018 (World Cup 2018)”
Read more...NATO has grown from 12 founding states to 29 nations. And when the U.S. was attacked on September 11, 2001, NATO invoked Article 5, which states that an attack on any member state is an attack on all members. -
Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom
“Americans always said they had no troops in Ukraine.”
Read more...There are no U.S. troops engaged in combat in Ukraine and the deployment of military personnel in Ukraine for training purposes was publicly announced in advance. -
Russian Defense Ministry
“Not a single anti-aircraft missile system of the armed forces has ever crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border.”
Read more...The International Joint Investigation Team discovered and published detailed evidence proving that the “Buk” missile system used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) in July 2014, killing all 298 people on board, belonged to and was deployed by Russia. -
Alexander Karpushin
Russian Ambassador to Albania
“[T]he main objectives of Russia here are the building of economic cooperation with mutual benefits and the maintenance of sustainable cultural and humanitarian ties with the Balkan peoples. All this certainly applies to Albania. Any other speculation about Russia's ‘aggressive plans’ or ‘expansionist appetites’ is nothing more than part of a major Western strategy to portray Russia as an imaginary enemy of NATO and the EU.”
Read more...Russia has annexed foreign territory, is involved in several regional conflicts, and has reportedly been meddling in sovereign countries’ domestic politics, including in the Balkans. Moscow has repeatedly said it sees NATO as an enemy and a threat to Russia’s national interests. -
Eduard Sharmazanov
Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly, press secretary of the Republican Party, Armenia
“Manvel Grigoryan does not accept fabricated charges against him.”
Read more...The evidence presented by the Armenian security service against General Manvel Grigoryan was sufficient for his colleagues at the Parliament to strip him off his parliamentary immunity, for the Republican Party to call his actions “disgusting” and for his son to resign from the office of the mayor of Grigoryan’s home city. -
Maria Zakharova
Press secretary, Russian Foreign Ministry
"It is also worth mentioning that the United States has not provided satellite images, the presence of which was announced immediately after the [MH17] catastrophe."
Read more...Challenging the Joint Investigative Commission’s conclusion blaming Russia for shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, Russia’s Foreign Ministry demanded the U.S. release satellite images taken at the time of the crash. In fact, the U.S. intelligence made these images public on July 22, 2014. -
Russian Defense Ministry, via Sputnik
"Four Russian servicemen have been killed in Syria as a result of shelling by militants, the Russian Defense Ministry said. ‘Several groups of terrorists attacked an artillery battery of the Syrian government forces at night in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor. Two Russian military advisers, who directed the fire of the Syrian artillery, were killed on the spot. Five more servicemen were injured and were taken to the hospital immediately,’ the ministry said."
Read more...On May 27, Russian media quoted the country’s Defense Ministry as saying two servicemen were killed on the spot and two others died in the hospital from the injuries sustained during shelling in Syria’s Deir Ezzor province. Independent observers claim at least nine Russian troops killed in the attack. -
Yuri Shvytkin
State Duma Defense Committee
“How could they establish the fingerprints? They do not have a database that could identify biometric data (of Russian servicemen)… but how can they identify the real fingerprints of a serviceman who is serving?”RIA: The comment is “nullified.”
Read more...RIA Novosti admitted the Joint Investigation Team’s reference marks on the Buk surface-to-air missile system that could be used to identify it, comparing them to “fingerprints.” They were not talking about actual human fingerprints. -
RT
Op-ed
“U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker went to the Kiev-controlled side of the conflict zone in the eastern Donbass region, where he declared American military support for retaking the breakaway self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.”
Read more...Volker didn’t say that Ukraine should retake its territory by force, nor did he say the U.S. would lend military support to such an effort. -
Vladimir Putin
President, Russia
“That is an unprecedented thing. They are attempting to bring high treason charges against a person for what he did publicly and for performing his professional duties. I haven’t seen anything like this in a long time.”
Read more...Many nations, including Russia, have charged journalists with high treason. Despite Putin’s claim that he has not seen anything like this in a long time, he actually has – the case against Russian journalist Grigory Pasko, who was imprisoned on high treason charges -
Press service of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR)
“…When NATO service members, escorted by Ukrainian militants, were visiting today the combat contact line in the vicinity of Avdiivka, the (Ukrainian Armed Forces) command purposefully led the guests into their minefield, where a car with the foreigners was blown up by a landmine. As a result, three NATO servicemen from Canada were killed and two from the U.S. were injured.”
Read more...Donetsk People’s Republic officials, followed by Russian state media, released false information about the death of several NATO soldiers near the village of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine. The Voice of America’s Ukrainian service, citing several sources, reported that no NATO servicemen were in the Donbas, and that no NATO members had reported losses. -
RT
Russian state-funded news agency
A former British ambassador to Syria told RT the OPCW ‘s claim that chlorine was "likely used" in Saraqeb, Syria, in February is "seriously misleading" because it is based on evidence provided by “jihadists.”
Read more...The “jihadists” referred to in the RT story are actually members of Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets. The claim that they are jihadists is a conspiracy theory promoted by the Syrian and Russian governments, and RT’s source has worked for a pro-Assad government lobby group.