MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/. The Kiev regime and Ukraine's special services should stop trying to intimidate Russian journalists through assassination attempts and provocations, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Wednesday.
"The Ukrainian security services have been working very closely in the journalistic environment for a long time, coming up with terrible provocative actions, preparing to assassinate Russian journalists," she said, "By trying to intimidate our journalists with their ‘punishments’, the Kiev regime is demonstrating a new facet of lawlessness and misanthropy. Stop intimidating people who work in the media, stop threatening them."
The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman recalled in this regard the threats made by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in his Tuesday night video address, in which he promised to "punish" Russian journalists for being dedicated to performing their professional duties.
"It is indicative that Zelensky’s address with the mentioned threats was made public right after the Ukrainian president tried to accuse our country of terrorism from the UN tribune," the diplomat said, "I see an analogy with the terrorist act of the Ukrainian Nazis, foiled in April, with the aim to eliminate several prominent representatives of the Russian media. The attack was planned and carried out under the coordination of the Ukrainian special services and with the knowledge of their Western handlers."
Zakharova pointed out that in Ukraine, "over which the West has exercised its protectorate for many years, the murders of journalists have not been investigated at all". "You live in the 21st century, after all, and everything that you thought you could do in your country is not acceptable in our country and in the whole world, which you consider civilized," she adressed Zelensky, "All the crimes of the Kiev regime are thoroughly documented, and all the perpetrators will be brought to justice and will suffer the punishment they deserve, as established by law".