Politics
Saturday 23 June 2018
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Vladimir Putin
President of Russia
I am opposed to raising the retirement age [in Russia]. As long as I am president, no such decision will be made. Altogether, I believe that there is no need in our country to raise the retirement age. We can and need to boost the economy and the interest of people to continue working but without infringing on their rights to retirement. I will say this again: I am against raising the retirement age.
Read more...While Putin’s said in 2005 that the retirement age would not be raised as long as he was president, the Russian government has decided to raise the retirement age 8 years to age 63 for women, and five years to age 65 for men. Putin’s press secretary says Putin was not involved in the recent decision to raise the retirement age in Russia. -
Sergei Ilyin
Radio Sputnik
"Some of the people, supposedly repressed for political reasons, whose release Washington is calling for, have been convicted of grave crimes such as terrorism and murder. Their guilt has been completely and exhaustively proven."
Read more...The three men named in the article have been convicted based on extremely dubious evidence, hence the accusation that their incarceration is politically motivated. -
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. -
Russian Foreign Ministry's Official Twitter Account
Russian Foreign Ministry
“In November 1991, in her speech in Houston, ex-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said that ‘according to the estimates of the world community, it is economically feasible for only 15 million people to live in Russia.’”
Read more...The quote is fake and comes from a Russian-language book titled "Why Russia is Not America." There is no evidence that Margaret Thatcher ever said anything like this. -
Kansas City Star
Newspaper
“The three southwest Kansas men recently convicted in a militia plot to bomb Somali immigrants may have been motivated by Russian manipulation of U.S. social media, a terrorism expert says.”
Read more...While the three men convicted of planning a terrorist attack on Somali refugees were extremely active on Facebook, it is not clear if they saw or shared any of the Russian Facebook ads with anti-Muslim or anti-immigrant rhetoric. -
Vladimir Putin
President of the Russian Federation
“Our mass media is free. People are free to speak out and make a name for themselves as representatives of many political movements do.”
Read more...Russia’s political system ranked is “authoritarian,” the country’s World Freedom score is consistent with “Not free” by Freedom House, based on lacking political rights, civil liberties and press freedom. -
Vladimir Putin
President, Russia
“We did not leave it [G-7], our colleagues refused to come to Russia due to known reasons at some point. Please, we will be glad to see everyone in Moscow.”
Read more...As Putin said, the G-7 members did refuse to come to Russia in 2014 due to Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine; however, Putin’s claim that Russia has not left G-7 is not true – Russia officially declared permanent withdrawal from the club in 2017. -
TASS
Russian State News Agency
TASS HEADLINE: Austrian chancellor calls Russia superpower, stresses its role for peace.(Later in the article): Russia plays a big role in Syria and in the east of Ukraine, according to Sebastian Kurz.
Read more...Kurz is right when he says Russia plays a big role in Ukraine and Syria, but not as the peacemaker the TASS portrays. The article is brief, doesn’t mention Kurz’s emphasis on the Minsk agreement, and omits the Austrian government’s continued support of EU sanctions on Russia, following Putin’s Ukraine adventures. -
Svetlana Sokolova
Russian regional governor
"Strunino is, of course, a small town, 14,000 residents in 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the main city, Alexandrov. And I think we will most definitely work on rebuilding that clinic there, especially since there is a need there.”
Read more...During his program "Direct Line," a group of women asked President Putin about their small town's crumbling hospital building. He turned to the regional governor -- and the women reacted with their own fact check of the governor's response. -
Unknown
Editor of USA Really Website
“This exciting new project will encourage our colleagues and fellow citizens to think critically, and to provide a large platform where this can still happen, free of censorship. We need to be creative, to start our own watchdog organizations, and restore our basic constitutional freedoms.The key to being able to do that, starts with the fight for freedom of speech.”
Read more...While the site appears to be a platform for aspiring American “citizen journalists,” it is in fact a Russian project possibly tied to the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg, better known as the “troll factory.” -
Ya Russkiy Website
“This is George Soros. Remember this next time the Soros-funded liberals call you a racist, fascist or Nazi.”
Read more...Websites and social media followed by millions of Russian ultra-nationalists have for years recycled an article headlined “The SS Man George Soros.” The article includes a poster captioned “This is George Soros” that shows a photo of a young man in a German Nazi uniform. In fact, the man in the photo is Oskar Groening, a Nazi SS junior squad leader who served at the Auschwitz concentration camp. The Kremlin banned Soros-founded NGOs from Russia in 2015 after declaring they posed a danger to the state. -
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.