Tribute to Maria by a Scottish expat in Russia and RI contributor Rhod Mackenzie.

Maria Zakharova is the official press spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, her press briefings are not only informative but entertaining, she has established herself in the media as not only a witty, intelligent and articulate person but a wonderful antidote to the bland spokespeople representing the US and the EU who spout cliches and platitudes which they deliver during their prepared but meaningless statements and then avoid any real questions or give extremely evasive answers to any questions they are asked and never ever wavering from the prepared their text despite how ridiculous they look and sound.

This is the standard of what you have to expect of the Western presstitute media who slavishly write up their reports based on the outpourings of bovine excrement by these so called spokespeople of the US and the EU and that is Maria Zakharova really stands out as she also takes to social media to take to task any media outlet that writes blatant falsehoods.

The article below is from her Facebook page where this time she takes to task the Euronews Channel about its blatant lies, falsehoods and propaganda regarding the Crimean Tatars who are currently following the Ukraine's win in Eurovision, thus becoming the latest Western 'Cause Celebre’.

Maria! you are a credit to your profession and a wonderful example to all those so called journalists who slavishly follow the outpourings of the US and EU and print their propaganda.

"I am waiting for an official apology from the Euronews TV channel"

I was reading the website of the Euronews TV Channel. The article I was reading was about the anniversary of the deportation of Crimean Tatars and the ‘commemorative events’ that took place in Kiev on that day. It is said in the Russian version:

“More than 200 thousand Tatars were deported from the Crimea from May 18th to 20th in 1944. There were also representatives of another 20 ethnic groups, including Crimean Tatars, Chechens and Armenians who suffered being forcibly relocated on the suspicion of their collaborating with the Germans”.

Zakharova is quoting an excerpt from the publication about the memorial events in Kiev on the anniversary of the deportation of Crimean Tatars.

«However for the English-speaking audience the story goes like this: "The Crimean Tatars are remembering their great national tragedy, the mass deportation by Stalin in May 1944 of more than two million men, women, and children.”

This is not a misprint and not a randomly added extra nought – it was spelled out in the English version. It also says that the commemorative events on the anniversary of the deportation are banned ‘in occupied Crimea’, in Bakhchisarai in particular.

Let’s state things as they really are. It’s not double standards in how information is reported to different audiences. It’s not political bias. It’s blatant lying and propaganda.

Here is what so called ‘Kremlin propaganda’, represented by RIA Novosti, writes about the actions of ‘the occupants’:

“There were mourning events taking place on Wednesday in the Crimea related to the anniversary of the deportation of Crimean Tatars and other ethnic minorities outside the peninsula. The major events took place at midday in the Bakhchisarai region near the Siren railway station, where trainloads of people were sent out of the Crimea. There were members of the republic’s government, parliament, clergy and native Crimeans. ‘This place should have a monument for people be able to come here and commemorate their family at this station where the people were deported from the Crimea’, - the Head of the Republic, Sergei Aksenov, said before the opening ceremony. Aksenov said that they had already allocated the area for the construction of the memorial that would take up to three years and would cost about 14 million rubles. He underlined that there are also projects such as the memorial complex at the state farm Krasny near Simferopol that was opened last year.

“The complex that will be constructed here is a good project that will commemorate those tragic days”, - the Crimean Mufti Emirali Ablaev said in his speech.

The participants in the ceremony examined the blueprints of the future complex. So far there is a freight wagon settled on the tracks – a copy of the old railway wagons that were used to deport people from the Crimea, transported from Dzhankoy where the Crimean Railways had repaired and restored it for installation at the memorial”.

Speaking of disinformation, RIA Novosti took the liberty of writing ‘71th anniversary’, instead of ‘72th’ on the their website. But the computer program’ posted the correct ‘72th anniversary’ on its news feed.

It’s up to you to decide the truth. It’s really up to You.