All news

Diplomat says story about American neo-Nazi site in Russia became political show in US

The Russian telecom watchdog has requested to stop the operation of the American neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer in Russia

MOSCOW, August 18. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that the incident with the Russian version of the American neo-Nazi internet newspaper Daily Stormer was turned into a political show. She said about it on the Russia 1 television channel live, noting that information that Russia was involved in this story had been made up by mass media.

"Reporters called us and requested to comment on the extent to which Russia allowed the American web site with Nazi content to open its resource in the Russian space. A whole political show was set up during these few hours (until the site was blocked in Russia - TASS)," she said.

Zakharova pointed out that the US also accused Moscow of interfering in the situation in Charlottesville which could be sent from one center with a goal to spread this issue through mass media.

"We are indeed receiving information from our embassy in Washington that people are calling, local American journalists are asking about Russia’s interference, including in these events. What is most interesting is that these questions are similar, which means someone wrote them and is starting to hype up this issue," the diplomat explained.

Earlier, the GoDaddy web domain that hosted the Daily Stormer gave its founders twenty-four hours to remove the resource. The decision was taken after the publication of an article which ridiculed Heather Heyer who was killed last Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia, in the clashes between the far-right extremists and their opponents. After that, the web site was registered in the domain belonging to the Google corporation that recalled its registration. The resource was registered in Russia, but the domain name registrar Ru-Center stopped delegating this domain name following Roskomnadzor’s request.

Charlottesville saw violent clashes between ultra-right extremists and their opponents on August 12 caused by the local authorities’ decision to topple the monument to commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War (1861-1865) General Robert Lee. At the height of the riot, a 20-year-old neo-Nazi intentionally drove into the crowd of activists who gathered in protest of the ultra-right demonstration held there, killing a 32-year-old woman and wounding 19 people.