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State Department materials on Russian disinformation on Ukraine false, diplomat says

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova added that claims by the Department of State that Russia is not being surrounded by NATO bases and that nobody promised not to expand NATO in the eastward direction are even more absurd
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova Russian Foreign Ministry/TASS
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova
© Russian Foreign Ministry/TASS

MOSCOW, January 21. /TASS/. The US Department of State has published a report on Russia’s alleged disinformation on Ukraine which contains "passages of simply inhuman lies," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel on Friday.

"For example, Moscow’s assertion that a redeployment of Russian armed forces on Russian territory is a redeployment of Russian armed forces on Russian territory is declared as false. This is a masterpiece," she wrote.

The diplomat added that claims by the Department of State that Russia is not being surrounded by NATO bases and that nobody promised not to expand NATO in the eastward direction are even more absurd. "Out of 20,000 kilometers of Russia’s land border only 1,200 kilometers border NATO; out of 14 Russia’s neighbors by land, only five are NATO members. So this is not an encirclement if one can exit from it," she noted, calling the State Department’s arguments "ingenious."

The spokeswoman added that she was not going to sort out whether there were "more lies or ignorance" in the published material. "I know one thing for sure, this could only be published by ‘the Ministry of Truth’," she concluded.

On January 20, on its website, the US Department of State published the examples of Russia’s alleged disinformation as well as a report on the role of Russia’s RT TV channel and the Sputnik agency in "disinformation and propaganda."

According to the diplomatic agency, Moscow "creates and spreads disinformation in an attempt to confuse and overwhelm people about Russia’s real actions in Ukraine, Georgia, and elsewhere in Europe." In its 33-page report, the State Department insists that RT and Sputnik "play a crucial role in how Russia uses disinformation to advance its foreign policy.".