Macfol - Simonyan: RT is lying

The US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFol indicated to the head editor of Russia Today Margarita Simonyan on a lie on his broadcast addressed to him. “When we met in the White House, you asked me to say when RT will transmit false information on the air. Today on the air of RT - that Macfol sent Navalny (civil activist Alexei Navalny. - Ed.) To Yale. Lie,” McFol wrote on Twitter.

Simonyan, in turn, wrote in her microblog that the employees on her behalf checked the broadcast of all programs on five RT channels and did not find the information that McFol refers to. “The only thing where McFol with Navalny was mentioned yesterday is not our broadcast at all, but Panarin’s post on the site directly above the disclaimer (a warning that the author’s personal point of view is expressed in the article.“ Ed.), ”Simonyan wrote. She noted that she was studying in the USA herself.

In the article " McFol and Moscow Raisers of the Opposition ", published on the RT website, political analyst Igor Panarin claims that "McFol sent Navalny to study at Yale University as part of the Orange Revolutionary Clip program in Russia.

“Does Russia Today have no obligation to correct the actual mistakes in copyright articles?” McFol objected on his Facebook. “And are that Dr. Panarin expresses“ opinion ”, gives him the right to say anything and to hell with facts?”

McFol also told Twitter of TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak that the head of Rosmolodezh Vasily Yakemenko was in the United States last year. "Do your viewers know about the trip of American students jointly organized with the government to meet Yakemenko and others? Do your viewers know that several years ago we received Yakemenko in Stanford? Topic: establishing contacts with American universities," McFol wrote.

In an interview with Kommersant, McFol also denied statements that sounded in the Russian state media that he first met with representatives of the opposition at the new post. "Those who claim that I first met with the opposition are confused, and this is easy to double -check. My first meeting was here in the Foreign Ministry, where I handed the copies of my verification letters. Everything was done in accordance with the protocol," McFol said. According to Makfol, at a meeting of Deputy Secretary of State Wiialm Burns with representatives of civil society and the leaders of the opposition, he was present on duty. "This is my duty as an ambassador. When high -ranking officials come, the ambassador must attend their negotiations," he said.

McFol refused to talk about the future of the presidency of Vladimir Putin, offering to wait for the election results. Meanwhile, he was very complimentary about Putin's person as prime minister. "First of all, President Obama met with him. Breakfast with him lasted three hours-it was one of the most interesting conversations that Barack Obama led with any of the world leaders. We were talking about everything, by the way, and not just about the issues of a bilateral agenda. Secretary of Hillary Clinton also met with Putin during a visit to Moscow. And last year, when the vice-president of Joe came, when the vice-president of Joe came. Biden, there was a great and very productive communication with the Prime Minister, ”McFol said.

On January 17, Makfol and Deputy Secretary of State Uiialm Burns met in Moscow with Russian opposition and human rights activists. The representative of the Communist Party Leonid Kalashnikov, deputies from "Fair Russia" Oksana Dmitrieva and Ilya Ponomarev, Yabloko leader Sergey Mitrokhin, co -chairs of Parnas Boris Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Ryzhkov, human rights activist Lev Ponomarev, leader of the Russian Car owners Sergey Kanayev, Lilia Shibanova, Lilia Shibanova, Lilia Shibanova, Co -Procedure Medicon, were invited to the American embassy. The head of the Russian branch of Transparency International Elena Panfilova and the defender of the Khimkinsky forest Yevgeny Chirikova.

The United States does not seek to intervene in Russian internal affairs, Burns said in an interview with Kommersant. “We are absolutely not interested in interfering in Russian politics,” said the diplomat. “The political future of Russia should be determined by its citizens, not Americans or someone else. However, it is wrong to assume that transparent cooperation between our non -governmental organizations is one way or another aimed at the destabilization of Russia. This is simply wrong.”

"We do not strive to give a lecture on democracy to Russians. I know from my own experience how skeptical in Russia they relate to such lectures," Burns, who worked as an ambassador to Russia in 2005-2008. Deputy Secretary of State confirmed Washington's “concern” with messages about violations and falsifications of the State Duma elections. According to Burns, the United States "is looking forward to the results of the promised investigation, as well as the implementation of reforms announced by President Medvedev."