Maria Zakharova: Update on Maria Butina’s detention in the United States

Update on Maria Butina’s detention in the United States

  

Concerns are growing about Russian citizen Maria Butina who was arrested in the US on July 15 on preposterous charges of acting as a foreign agent.

On August 17, Maria Butina was transferred to a new jail without any advance notification and placed in solitary confinement which is reserved for dangerous repeat offenders. Before this, the Russian citizen had to submit to a humiliating search. All her personal belongings, including clothes, food and hygienic items were taken away from her. She was held in a quarantine cell for 12 hours without food. Her requests for urgent medical assistance were ignored. As a result, her health has deteriorated.

The strip-searches and night checks have finally stopped only due to Russian diplomats’ efforts, including a harshly worded protest delivered to the Department of State and the US Embassy in Moscow, and Maria Butina’s conditions have somewhat improved. She was transferred to a solitary cell with a window and adequate temperature. The administration of the jail has promised to allow her to call her family soon.

Once again, we demand that Maria Butina immediately be given full medical assistance and that her politically motivated criminal proceedings be ceased. We hope that the international community will take note of the degrading and arbitrary treatment of Maria Butina by US law enforcement. We will continue to defend her rights and lawful interests.

 

I'M MARIA AND I NEED YOUR HELP.

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Answers to media questions -- Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova, Moscow, August 23, 2018

Answers to media questions:

Question: NATO has deployed about 4,000 service personnel near Russia’s western borders. According to NATO Spokesperson Oana Lungescu, these defensive actions aim to deter any possible aggression. The West is no longer trying to find a logical explanation for its actions. Lungescu did not comment on the establishment of a training facility in Romania or the deployment of a US tank battalion to Poland. How can you comment on these statements?

Maria Zakharova: These are traditional items from the “absurd news” section. What potential threats are there, and how were they assessed? This issue is absolutely unclear. Specific methods for registering, estimating and calculating military contingents and their deployment areas for defence against some unspecified threats are also something absolutely illusory and absurd. We have noted this, and we have also stated that the reinforcement, redeployment, reformatting and expansion of military contingents in Europe certainly do not facilitate stability and a balance of power on our common continent. Nor do they bring openness and constructive attitudes to our already complicated dialogue. The goals and tasks are absolutely unclear. Apart from Russia, the question should be addressed to them. We need to ask them to what extent the residents of the concerned NATO member countries understand the motives behind these actions because none of this is free; this costs a lot and requires tremendous efforts. Obviously, it would be good to learn how the taxpayers’ money is being spent.

I repeat, calculation methods are the most absurd thing here. We have repeatedly noted the political response. But, considering the fact that answers to the question “What’s the purpose of these actions?” imply that this is a well-calculated response to a potential threat, I would like to say once again that this can only be described by the world “absurd.”

Russian diplomat presents evidence of Ukraine’s lies about UN fake news discussion

Russian diplomat presents evidence of Ukraine’s lies about UN fake news discussion

Russian Politics & Diplomacy

May 13, 2:22UTC+3

The diplomat suggested that Russian representatives might ask the UN to release video footage showing how persons invited by Ukraine were threatening a Russian diplomat

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

© Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASS

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has released evidence that Ukraine had organized an event dedicated to propaganda and fake news declaring it as part of a session of the United Nations’ Committee on Information, she wrote on Facebook on Saturday.

"I am publishing a screenshot of the card of Ukraine's Permanent Mission to the United Nations inviting to the event on the fight against propaganda and fake news, where it is written in black and white that it is held under the auspices of the UN Committee on Information. And also, video of four statements of the committee’s chair who was trying to explain to the Ukrainian delegation in presence of other members of that body of the UN General Assembly that it was not so and that the committee had not authorized any events," Zakharova said.

The diplomat suggested that Russian representatives might ask the UN to release video footage showing how persons invited by Ukraine were threatening a Russian diplomat.

"By the way, do you think if we will be able to get CCTV recordings at the UN Secretariat showing how camouflaged people were pestering and photographing our diplomat on the sidelines of that ‘session’? I think we should try," she noted.

Earlier, Zakharova told reporters that participants in Kiev’s military operation in southeastern Ukraine threatened a Russian diplomat with death at the United Nations headquarters.

According to her, the incident took place on May 9, following a meeting on propaganda and fake news arranged by the Ukrainian delegation, which it claimed to be part of a session of the UN Committee on Information. The Russian diplomat expressed confidence that the incident was "part of Kiev’s information efforts negatively illustrated by the Mirotvorets [or Peacemaker] website, which still exists, where the personal information about staff members of the Press and Information Department at the Russia Foreign Ministry." "Everything that the Ukrainian mission did is in line with Kiev’s policy aimed at intimidating Russian diplomats working in the information field," Zakharova noted.

            

STUNNING coincidence? Chlorine containers from Germany and smoke bombs from Salisbury (Skripal poisoning) found in Syria

Connecting the dots between Salisbury, Skripal poisoning and Syria chemical weapons hoax points to NATO collusion

by 

ALEX CHRISTOFOROU

April 19, 2018, 18:04

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“The more this story goes on, the more the wheels fall off the wagon of the initial allegations” says independent journalist Martin Summers as Russia reveals to Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) they gave proof ‘Novichok’ was patented in US in 2015.

It gets better…Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated during a Thursday press conference that containers filled with chlorine from Germany and smoke bombs manufactured in the United Kingdom city of Salisbury were found in the East Ghouta region of Damascus, the location of the alleged chemical attack by Assad which resulted in the launch of 105 Tomahawks on 3 Syrian targets by US, UK and French forces last Friday.

WATCH Russia’s Maria Zakharova talk Syria crisis, Skripal case in RARE English interview

The Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman sat down with Britain’s Sky News for a unique one-on-one

by 

RICKY TWISDALE

April 13, 2018, 09:40

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With the world seemingly spiraling deeper into crisis over an alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria and threats of direct conflict with Russia flying from Donald Trump’s Twitter account, Russia’s disarming but stern foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova sat down with the UK’s Sky News for a rare one-on-one interview.

Zakharova spoke in English in the over half an hour exchange, voicing Moscow’s position on US and allied threats of assault on Syria, and the status of ex-double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, whom Russia stands blamed by London of poisoning.

9-minute short clip from Sky News (see FULL 35-minute interview below):

Though she stressed that as a wife and mother she hoped for peace, Zakharova said Russia would not hesitate to defend its servicemen in Syria if they came under fire. The Russian presence in the country was by invitation, she said, unlike that of other foreign troops. She went on to denounce the alleged Douma chemical attack as faked for the cameras by the terrorists and White Helmets “aid” workers.

Maria Zakharova Reminds Theresa May And Boris Johnson: Remember English Football Players In Berlin?