Montenegro assassination claim 'part of psychological warfare operation against Russia'
The Telegraph, as a favored mouthpiece for British intelligence service disinformation, is a part of psychological warfare operation against Russia, said independent journalist Martin Summers.
Another accusation is being thrown at Russia as a British newspaper published a story about Moscow being allegedly behind a plot to kill Montenegro's Prime Minister last October.
According to the article, Russia wanted to overthrow the country's government to stop them joining NATO.
RT: What about the fact the respected paper The Telegraph has done this? What do you make of accusations like this with unnamed sources, especially when the claims are so severe?
Martin Summers: I suspect they have probably been briefed by British intelligence. I don’t just think they are chasing ratings here; this is part of an orchestrated campaign of defamation against Russia. And of course, there was not an assassination, it was foiled, apparently. But of course, there have been assassinations going on recently in [Eastern Ukraine] of senior people in military personnel like Givi (Mikhail Tolstykh) and Motorola (Arsen Pavlov). Alexander Zakharchenko, who is a political figure, has openly been threatened by deputies in Kiev parliament that he is going to be next. And they’ve even claimed that they have carried out these assassinations.
From the [Eastern Ukrainian] side, this is extremely provocative. So, the Kiev regime is openly assassinating political figures on the other side of the ceasefire line and the [Eastern Ukraine] side cannot possibly retaliate without being accused of being terrorists. But these assassinations have definitely taken place, unlike the one in Montenegro, which never even occurred. And we are being told they know everything about it although it never happened.
RT: Why do media outlets go with stories like this? Is it bad journalism, hits online? Would they have to name their source if approached by a government?
MS: You’ve got to realize with a broad sheet like The Telegraph, they do get briefed by intelligence sources with they say can’t be named and they run with this ‘sources told us’. They won’t just pick up this out of nowhere, they are part of this psychological warfare operation themselves. And I think the take-home for the Russian people is this: what happened during the Deir ez-Zor incident in Syria was that there was negotiations going on between the Russian and the American side about a ceasefire in Syria and then the attack on Deir ez-Zor by NATO forces, as it were, including the RAF, which killed 82 Syrian soldiers ended those negotiations. And the Russian side should have drawn the correct conclusion that you are not negotiating with the US president, you are negotiating with the Pentagon. And the same is true with Trump. Trump is not in fact in charge of the policy and nor was Obama. The Pentagon is in charge of the policy and you should draw the correct conclusions...
Frankly, in Britain, it is well know that the Daily Telegraph, which is aligned with the conservative party, is a favored mouthpiece for intelligence service disinformation. They've printed lots of articles in the past which they've openly claimed were sourced in British intelligence, but then people have got to draw their own conclusions about whether they're true or not. Because both the Telegraph and British intelligence may and do lie.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
