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Kremlin sees no ‘big deal’ with Defense Ministry’s ‘photo error’

The Kremlin spokesman said that there is nothing dangerous in mistakes, if they are timely corrected
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov  Mikhail Metzel/TASS
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

MOSCOW, November 15. /TASS/. The Kremlin does not view the Defense Ministry’s Tuesday military operation photo slip-up as a major problem, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

"Mistakes do happen and they’re no big deal, if they are corrected in a timely manner," Peskov said.

"I would not blow its [the recent mistake’s] significance out of proportion," the Kremlin aide said, adding that the Defense Ministry had already reported that the individual responsible for the erroneous photos has been penalized.

The Kremlin spokesman also responded to the journalists’ remarks that a similar error had possibly occurred in another episode included in a documentary made by Hollywood filmmaker Oliver Stone about Vladimir Putin. In one of the documentary’s episodes, Putin shows Stone some footage about the Russian air force fighting terrorists in Syria. However, Internet users claimed the video resembled footage from a US airstrike on Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

"Regarding this point on Stone’s film much has been contended and continues to be challenged by Putin’s detractors," the Kremlin spokesman noted.

"But the documentary turned out to be brilliant, remarkable and interesting," he added.

Defense Ministry’s inquiry

The Russian Defense Ministry is investigating a civil service employee who erroneously attached the incorrect photographs to its statement on interaction between the US-led international coalition and the Islamic State (a terror group outlawed in Russia) militants near Abu Kamal, Syria, the ministry reported on Tuesday.

"The US command’s refusal to carry out strikes against IS terrorist convoys retreating from Abu Kamal is an objective fact recorded in the transcripts of the talks and, therefore, well known to the American side, just as the active counteraction by US aircraft to the Russian Aerospace Forces, which were ready to destroy IS terrorists who were regrouping for new attacks against government troops near Abu Kamal," the Defense Ministry said.

The Russian Defense Ministry also provided authentic photos of an IS militant convoy heading for the Syrian-Iraqi border.