Politics
Saturday 9 February 2019
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![Vyacheslav Volodin]()
Vyacheslav Volodin
Speaker of the State Duma
“A bill of [the] Verkhovna Rada that restricts the rights of observers at the elections of the President of Ukraine violates the international law.”
Read more...While Ukraine's banning of Russian citizens from entering the country to take part in the OSCE election monitoring mission is "without precedent," it does not violate international law, and there will still be OSCE observers. Only two members of the team were Russian citizens. -
![RT (Russia Today)]()
RT (Russia Today)
State-owned media outlet
“The Russian economy has seen the biggest growth since 2012, expanding by 2.3 percent last year, according to preliminary estimates provided by [the] Russian state statistics agency.”
Read more...The statistics are contradicted by numerous independent analyses and have even been questioned by senior Russian officials. The past head of the responsible government agency was recently dismissed. -
![Konstantin Kosachev]()
Konstantin Kosachev
Chairman, International Affairs Committee, Russia’s Federation Council
"Guaido’s status cannot be determined from abroad, whether by the president of the United States or any other country. It can be determined only by the people of Venezuela and only by constitutional means. In this sense, for Russia the presidential status of Guaido doesn’t exist."
Read more...The U.S. is just one of many countries and international organizations which recognize the interim presidency of Venezuelan opposition politician Juan Guaido. Many of these countries didn't recognize Maduro’s controversial reelection in 2018. His original term ended on January 10, 2019. -
![Semyon Bagdasarov]()
Semyon Bagdasarov
Director, Center for Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies
“Objectively, for the Americans contacts with ISIL are more interesting… – for spreading sabotage actions beyond the pales of Afghanistan. On the border with Turkmenistan there is a major offensive is being cooked by Islamic State and allied groups. That is where they may surface.”
Read more...The Afghan Special Forces confirmed they conducted the operation arresting Islamic State members and transferring them under the Afghan National Directorate of Security control. The U.S. was not involved. -
![WikiLeaks]()
WikiLeaks
“U.S. largest audience TV host, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow (Democratic party aligned) this evening: Russia will freeze you and your family to death.”
Read more...WikiLeaks mischaracterized the MSNBC host and RIA Novosti enhanced the misinformation. Both relayed only part of the program, ignoring actual U.S. government warnings cited in the program. Maddow’s concerns about a potential Russian threat were not baseless. -
![Yevgeny Prigozhin]()
Yevgeny Prigozhin
Russian businessman
“At the Defense Ministry, which I have no connection with, I cannot negotiate the financing/supply of a private military contractor that doesn't exist.”
Read more...“Putin’s chef” denies both the existence of the Wagner Group and his role in bankrolling the mercenary band, which has served everywhere from Ukraine to Syria. But Prigozhin’s claims do not stand up to scrutiny. -
![Alexander Ionov]()
Alexander Ionov
Vice chairman, Security Committee, State Duma
“Maria Butina is a human rights activist, for me Maria Butina is a public figure, a student of the American University, and the most relevant is that she is a person who did not work (collaborate) with the Russian state bodies.”
Read more...Alexander Ionov, vice chairman of the Russian State Duma’s Security Committee, has come out in support of “human rights” activist Maria Butina. He told VOA she never “worked” with Russian state bodies. But the long trail of evidence and links resulting in Butina’s U.S. guilty plea shows otherwise. -
![Maram Susli AKA Mimi al-Laham]()
Maram Susli AKA Mimi al-Laham
Vlogger, commentator
“NATO puppet #Bellingcat created an account pretending its [sic]"In #Venezuela" when the Bellingcat author behind it actually a student in Canada.”
Read more...While the Twitter account calls itself “In Venezuela,” it publicly identifies its physical location as based in Toronto, Canada. This is also stated at the top of the “about” section on the writer’s blog. -
![RIA Novosti]()
RIA Novosti
Russian state news agency
“(The Wall Street Journal) noted that the head of the government (Hungary’s Orban) has been receiving orders (from the U.S.) to counter Chinese cyber espionage and support Ukraine as a counter to Russia.”
Read more...RIA Novosti “quoted” a Wall Street Journal article, attributing to it wording that was not in the original piece. The U.S. cannot “order” foreign governments to follow certain policies, although the Hungarian leader objected to "pressure" from the U.S. -
![Margarita Simonyan]()
Margarita Simonyan
Margarita Simonyan, Editor-in-chief of RT
“From the outset, Salmond insisted that the process was political and the charges were investigated with violations. The court supported him. It’s dangerous to be an RT presenter.”
Read more...Simonyan distorts the court’s actual decision in favor of Salmond, and makes other errors about the Scottish court system. RT put out an official statement declining to comment to preserve "due process." -
![TV Zvezda]()
TV Zvezda
Official Russian Ministry of Defense media outlet
"It is specified that an anti-aircraft mount (ZU-23), a BTR-70 [armored personnel carrier] and one armored reconnaissance-patrol vehicle (BRDM-2) were found there [in Donbas] during the monitoring."
Read more...The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission report for January 22-23 does mention these vehicles, but they are all light armored vehicles that do not violate the Minsk agreement. -
![Maria Zakharova]()
Maria Zakharova
Spokesperson, Russian Foreign Ministry
“Demanding from the Russian side answers to queries by investigators that seemingly have already been fully answered by Russia, the Dutch authorities simply categorically refuse to give up their own secrets, which could be useful in the course of investigation.”
Read more...While the Joint Investigation Team has not shared with Russia all of the material from its ongoing investigation of the MH-17 shoot-down, they have concluded Russia is to blame for the downing, and say Moscow has not fully responded to the Joint Investigative Team requests.
