RIA Novosti: Russian Lawmaker [Pushkov] Bashes US Media as ‘State Department Spin-Offs’

Alexei Pushkov file photo

MOSCOW, August 6 (RIA Novosti) – Alexei Pushkov, a senior Russian lawmaker and chairman of the State Duma foreign affairs committee, on Wednesday lambasted American media outlets, saying the fifth pillar of US democracy has devolved into a State Department spin-off.

“The US media are dead. Now they are just subdivisions of the US State Department,” Pushkov said in a Twitter post citing reports about US journalists in Russia refusing to go and talk with 438 Ukrainian soldiers who took refuge in Russia’s Rostov region following clashes in east Ukraine.

Earlier in the day, the deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Information Department said journalists from the CNN, Reuters, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Christian Science Monitor opted to stay behind after they were offered a lift to the refugee camp by the Russian Defense Ministry’s plane.

On Sunday night, Ukrainian service personnel, including 164 border guards, sought shelter near the Russian town of Gukovo. Despite the volatile situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border and strained relations between the two nations, the troops were allowed to enter and were provided with shelter at a refugee camp.

 

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