Maria Zakharova
 Maria Zakharova     (official spokesperson) | ||||||||||||
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| Born | Maria Vladimirovna Zakharova 24 December 1975 | |||||||||||
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Maria Zakharova (born 24 December 1975) is Director of Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 10 August 2015, and is the official spokesperson. She has a degree of Candidate in Historical Sciences, the Russian equivalent of a PhD.[1]
Wide-ranging interview
In August 2019, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova was interviewed by Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett for MintPressNews covering Syria, Crimea, the Moscow protests and more:[2]
In a simple meeting room at the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry building, Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova gave me a generous hour of her time in a conversation peppered with bemused laughter at Western allegations about Russia and clear frustration at the West’s incessant vilification of all things Russia.
I traveled to Moscow in August, where to my delight I had the opportunity to interview Zakharova. Given that Russia is the focus of obsessive and largely negative Western media reporting, and also the country’s role in eliminating the proliferation of terrorist groups that once controlled large swaths of Syria, I wanted to ask Zakharova for her take on a variety of topics related to both Russia and Syria.
In our wide-ranging discussion, Zakharova spoke of the US sanctions regime against Russia and of the Western interference in Russian domestic issues — such as the protests seen in Moscow in July and August.
| Eva Bartlett interviews Maria Zakharova |
On Syria, she addressed the issue of exploitation of children in propaganda against Syria and Russia — notably Omran Daqneesh, a child whose image was splashed across newspapers and screens worldwide in 2016, incriminating Russia and Syria in an airstrike that was later proven to have never happened. An official apology from one of the most adamant perpetrators of that narrative, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, also never happened.
One cannot discuss the war in Syria and related propaganda without addressing the massively-funded White Helmets. In discussing the group, Zakharova gave examples of its role in fomenting support for Western military intervention, including in pushing responsibility on the Syrian government for the alleged but unproven and, by most honest accounts, staged chemical attack in Douma, eastern Ghouta, in 2018. Footage of the attack included video starring the White Helmets and another exploited Syrian boy, Hassan Diab, whose testimony of the events ran in stark contrast to the allegations against the Syrian government that were being circulated in the Western media.
Zakharova also addressed the inconsistencies around the Skripal case, the historic importance of Crimea’s referendum, and the UK “media freedom” conference of July 2019, where cases of imprisoned journalists like Julian Assange and Kirill Vyshinsky were notably not part of the conference program.
In an unexpected development since my discussion with Zakharova, Ukrainian-Russian journalist and editor Vyshinsky was released from his over 15 months of imprisonment without trial by Ukraine. Referring to his imprisonment, Zakharova described him as a hostage.
The interview took place at a time when Western media reporting would have one believe that the streets of Moscow were full of chaos and unrest with the protests. In fact, contrary to media reporting, Moscow was calm, as were the protests I attended on 10 August 2019. Once again, it seemed, the media was hyping and distorting reality, as they have so often done elsewhere in the world.
Zakharova’s words are a reality check and offer an informative insight into the Russian perspective on Russian, Syrian, and global events.[3]
Related Document
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:Russia released statement on British role in attacks on Black Sea Fleet | Article | 2 November 2022 | Lyndon LaRouche | “Today, the Kiev regime employs unacceptable fascist war methods using terrorist tactics and in doing so is becoming increasingly similar to ISIS and al-Qaeda. This, however, is not surprising, considering that these groups were created by the same masterminds and instructors from Anglo-Saxon countries." |
References
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