In the 24 hours since British police arrested Julian Assange outside the Ecuadorian embassy, Russia has shown a defiant and mocking face to the west.

Speaking at his daily press conference on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the WikiLeaks founder was an “independent informer” who was being “persecuted”.

“From our point of view, [the arrest] does not correspond with the ideals of free media or their immunity,” he said.

Julian Assange and Russia have long faced accusations of collaboration – selectively releasing information that compromises Russia’s enemies.

US security services assert Russian hackers were responsible for obtaining emails that compromised Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential election bid and ended up on Assange’s WikiLeaks.

In 2012, Assange also hosted a talk show on Russia Today (now RT), the English language channel funded by the Kremlin.

But Russia and WikiLeaks have denied accusations of collaboration. In today’s conference, Mr Peskov described the claims of cooperation as “a conspiracy theory”.

Key moments for Julian Assange Show all 9 1 /9 Key moments for Julian Assange Key moments for Julian Assange The situation today Assange was arrested after Metropolitan Police officers were invited into the Ecuadorian embassy on April 11 2019. How did it come to this? Ruptly TV Key moments for Julian Assange The break Assange shows the front page of the Guardian on July 26 2010, the day that they broke the story of the thousands of military files leaked by WikiLeaks AFP/Getty Key moments for Julian Assange Wanted A warrant for Assange's arrest was issued in August 2010 for counts of rape and molestation in Sweden AFP/Getty Key moments for Julian Assange Ruling The UK's Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that Assange should be extradited to Sweden to face trial Getty Key moments for Julian Assange Sanctuary Following the ruling, Assange was given asylum by the Ecuadorian governement over fears that his human rights would be violated if he were extradited, he has since remained in the embassy in London Getty Key moments for Julian Assange A friend in Pam Friend Pamela Anderson delivers lunch to Assange at the embassy in October 2016. She has since spoken against his arrest Getty Key moments for Julian Assange Arbitrarily detained A UN panel found in 2016 that Assange had been arbitrarily detained and that he had not been able to claim his full right to asylum. It urged Sweden to withdraw the charges against him Getty Key moments for Julian Assange The cat ultimatum Last year, the Ecuadorian embassy threatened to revoke Assange's internet access unless he stopped making political statements online and started taking better care of James, his pet cat. Assange accused Ecuador of violating his rights Reuters Key moments for Julian Assange Arrest Assange was arrested on April 11 2019. Ecuador revoked his asylum status and invited the Metropolitan Police in to the embassy to arrest him. Reuters

Throughout Thursday and Friday, Russian propaganda channels on TV and in print flagged what they described as “western hypocrisy” over Assange’s detention.

The Time Will Tell talk show devoted a large part of its Thursday programme to the detention. What had happened was a “personal and political tragedy,” host Artyom Sheinin said; an “injustice that touched everyone”.

Two pictures appear on screens behind the host – one showing a fresh-faced Australian whistleblower from 2012, and another showing the aged, bearded outlaw who was dragged from the Knightsbridge embassy on Thursday.

Mr Sheinin told his audience that the footage of Assange’s arrest was available only thanks to a Russian TV crew.

“Everyone was silent apart from RT!” he said. “And they have the cheek to lecture us about press freedom!”

Margarita Simonyan, RT’s channel’s combative editor in chief, said that the arrest of her former employee was proof that “hypocrisy had prevailed”.

“History will remember Assange as one of the greats, as a visionary,” she said. “He knew he would be extradited and that lots of awful things would be waiting for him – right up to the death penalty.”

Ms Simonyan was not alone to suggest Assange was in danger of execution following extradition to the United States. Both of Channel One’s main talk shows, and most of the loyalist press repeated such assertions.