‘Impossible to read’: Lavrov laces into State Department’s ‘Kremlin disinformation’ report
According to the top diplomat, the reader should randomly open any page of the said report to understand that it can't stand up to any criticism
GENEVA, January 21. /TASS/. A recent report penned by the US Department of State in the run-up to the Geneva meeting about Russia’s so-called ‘disinformation’ on Ukraine is impossible to comprehend, and Moscow has already expressed its reaction on this score, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.
"These papers, which the [US] Department of State specifically prepared for today’s meeting, are impossible to read," Lavrov said following his meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"However, we have a special department, which is led by an official representative of the ministry and which is obliged to carefully scrutinize them," Lavrov noted. "Our reaction to them [the documents] has been already expressed," he concluded.
According to Lavrov, the reader should randomly open any page of the said report to understand that it can't stand up to any criticism.
"It’s a pure lie regarding the most of it [the so-called report]," Russia’s top diplomat stated.
On January 20, the US Department of State released ‘examples’ of Russia’s alleged "disinformation" efforts and its sole evaluation of the role of RT TV and the Sputnik news agency in Russia’s "disinformation and propaganda ecosystem."
According to the Department of State, "the Kremlin creates and spreads disinformation in an attempt to confuse and overwhelm people about Russia’s real actions in Ukraine, Georgia, and elsewhere in Europe," while RT and Sputnik "play a crucial role in how Russia uses disinformation to advance its foreign policy."
Negotiations on security guarantees
On December 17, 2021, the Russian Foreign Ministry released a draft agreement on security guarantees between Russia and the United States and a draft agreement on ensuring the security of Russia and NATO member states.
Consultations on the issue took place in Geneva on January 10, followed by a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels on January 12 and a session of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Permanent Council in Vienna on January 13.