MOSCOW, July 10. /TASS/. US media outlets have been tasked by the US State Department with inciting the Russian populace to violently oppose the government, up to and including armed insurrection, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergey Naryshkin said in a statement on Monday.

"The foreign policy wing of the US government has, in effect, required that what had once been reputable media outlets agitate for subversive actions in Russia. Specifically, they have been tasked with inculcating among Russia’s citizenry the idea that they should violently oppose the government, up to and including armed insurrection," the SVR quoted Naryshkin as saying.

"According to data at the SVR’s disposal, in June the State Department sent instructions to major telecoms and media companies, such as AT&T, Comcast Corporation, Graham Media Group, Nash Holdings, Newsweek Publishing and The New York Times Company, detailing how to falsely slant coverage of events in and around Russia," the SVR chief pointed out, noting that the State Department has morphed once and for all into the type of "Ministry of Truth" propaganda organ described in 1984, the famous dystopian novel by George Orwell.

Major US media outlets have been instructed to "be more proactive in spreading the false narrative that Russia is weak and unable to protect its territories and that it will inevitably be defeated in its confrontation with the West," Naryshkin emphasized.

Additionally, he noted, US journalists have received explicit "recommendations" to portray traitors from among fugitive Russian opposition activists, as well as Russians directly implicated in subversive and terrorist activities targeting Russian servicemen and civilians, in a positive light, or even heroically, especially in a way that would appeal to the younger generation with the goal of radicalizing them and persuading them that a "bright future" for the country can only be guaranteed by overthrowing the current "regime."

The Russian foreign intelligence chief regretted that "[US Secretary of State] Antony Blinken, [US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs] Victoria Nuland, and others of their ilk have led the transformation of the State Department, previously a sensible, sober-minded institution, into a fetid garbage dump full of ‘yellow press’-style trash."