MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. Western countries are more frequently employing legacy media or official sources to disseminate disinformation about Russia’s alleged plans of aggression against Ukraine, since social networks are not able to keep the hype on this topic on life support for them, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Monday.
"Today, [this disinformation] is being published in official, traditional mass media daily, because they (Western nations - TASS) are unable to keep this story going on social media any longer. That is why they are turning to traditional mainstream media to publish this disinformation, or even use their own official resources, like the British did," she said in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) radio station, referring to a recent published allegation by the UK Foreign Office on Russia’s plans to "install" a pro-Russian government in Ukraine.
According to Zakharova, the British would have never posted anything of the kind on an official website unless it was a "sensational story." "They typically behave in a different way, by citing sources, through leaks and so on. But they chose this option and published the statement on the official website, and even their own media laughed at them because this provocation looked too obvious," she noted.
The UK Foreign Office said late on Saturday that Moscow was seeking to "install" a pro-Russian government in Kiev, with former member of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (parliament) Yevgeny Murayev as its head. London claimed it allegedly had information that Russia’s intelligence services maintain contacts with a number of former Ukrainian politicians, including Sergey Arbuzov (Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister in 2012-2014 and interim Prime Minister in 2014), Andrey Kluyev (First Deputy Prime Minister in 2010-2012 and chief of the presidential staff under former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich), Vladimir Sivkovich (former Deputy Head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council), and Nikolay Azarov (who served as Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2010-2014).
Murayev has already slammed this publication as groundless, saying that he has been on Moscow’s sanction list for three years and cannot enter Russia. Moreover, in his words, his father’s assets in Russia have been frozen. Murayev called on the British side to stop fomenting inflammatory activities.