Protest action at Russia’s embassy in London controlled by UK government - diplomat

Russian Politics & Diplomacy November 04, 2016, 19:15

On Thursday, a group of protesters blocked the entrance to the Russian embassy in London, holding a protest rally and dumping mannequin body parts outside

MOSCOW, November 4. /TASS/. Thursday’s protest rally outside the Russian embassy in the UK controlled by London officials has revealed British authorities’ intentions "to make out of their people a spineless and illiterate herd which cannot grasp the essence of the issue," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.

"The way the British authorities are manipulating common people and London cannot care less about democratic institutions has become a real tragedy since out of people they have made a spineless and illiterate herb unable to grasp the essence of the issue," Zakharova said in an interview with the Russian Ren-TV channel, specifying that such actions should be separated from the government and "should stem from an objective situation."

The protesters "knew nothing about the developments in Aleppo," she added.

"Had those young people spent money not on the uniform and plastic hands but sent it to the Aleppo children, it would have had more sense," Zakharova said.

Moreover, the protest action staged outside the Russian embassy in London on Thursday was controlled by London’s officials, Zakharova said on the national Rossiya’24 television channel on Friday.

Uniform costs money

"We saw the uniform and equipment. It costs money," Zakharova said. "We all realize well, and everybody can see it that these activities of civil society and public organizations are directly controlled by officials and government."

Protesters acted in full compliance with the plan drawn up at the UK’s Foreign Office after Boris Johnson had been appointed Foreign Secretary.

"There has been nothing like this before. Today we can see how such actions are being prepared. First, a signal comes from the Foreign Office, then from other agencies, next a week or two are needed to make preparations - presumably to allocate money - and in the end, a protest action is held by people who have no idea about whose interests they are defending and what slogans they are taking to the streets."

On Thursday, a group of protesters blocked the entrance to the Russian embassy in London, holding a protest rally and dumping mannequin body parts outside.

"The security of the Russian diplomatic mission in the UK was compromised," the embassy said in a statement posted on its official website, noting the embassy’s telephone line was blocked as well.

The embassy linked the protest action to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s speech in the House of Commons. The protest "has been thoroughly planned, which is not surprising in the context of the recent official statement in Parliament by Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson encouraging to hold protests outside the Russian Embassy in London," the embassy said in the statement.

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