OREANDA-NEWS. British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt accused Russia Today TV channel of spreading fake news. He made such a statement during a working visit to African countries. The minister believes that Russia is trying to “split and destabilize [Western] democracies” with the help of inaccurate information. “They especially like to do this with the help of manipulative media, fake news, and I’m afraid that RT is part of this effort,” Hunt quoted the Russian media.

Also, the Foreign Minister called “amusing” an interview with Russia Today TV channel Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, whom the British authorities suspect of poisoning the former GRU colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Hunt stressed that behind this interview "there is a much more evil goal." According to Hunt, after the incident in Salisbury, the Russian authorities prepared more than 40 versions explaining the incident. The Foreign Minister called the TV channel Russia Today, to which Petrov and Boshirov were interviewed, “a weapon of misinformation” and hopes that Ofcom’s British media regulator will ban its broadcasting. In March 2018, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said that the British media would be banned from working in Russia if London imposes sanctions on the RT channel due to the “Skripl case”.

Hunt declared that Russia pursues a foreign policy oriented ostensibly to destabilize Western democracies. “They especially like to do this through manipulative media, fake news, and I’m afraid RT is part of that effort,” the politician said.

According to the British side, on March 4, 2018, the former GRU colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in Salisbury. London blamed Russia for the incident, Moscow disagrees. The location of Skripale is unknown. The mother of the former colonel of the GRU appealed to the police so that her son and granddaughter would be recognized as missing, reports Nation News.