MOSCOW, 4 February (BelTA) – Evacuation of U.S. diplomats and their families from Minsk is a propaganda show, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova told a press briefing in Moscow on 4 February, BelTA has learned.
"Of course, these are their diplomatic services, their citizens, their employees. This is their sovereign decision. But it is impossible not to see that this move is in lock with other propaganda steps," Maria Zakharova said when asked about the departure of U.S. diplomats from Minsk allegedly because of the escalation of tensions around Ukraine.
The topic of diplomatic evacuation has been on for almost a month. "All this began with the fake news about the alleged evacuation of the Russian Embassy from Ukraine. The fake was crude, intentional," Maria Zakharova noted. “The fake news was refuted immediately but they had to keep the topic going and began to evacuate the U.S. foreign missions."
"We are yet to see whether this will happen, or whether the Department of State got things confused again and would deny this information afterwards as they usually do (both the White House and the Department of State). This is just another propaganda show. This is an information campaign, and this is obvious," Maria Zakharova emphasized.
“The name for this is provocative activity," the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry summed up.
