Russia rebukes Western ‘perverts’

Moscow says the West wants to “ruin” the Olympics

Media, both in Europe and across the ocean, featured the ‘Russian aggression toward Ukraine’ narrative in their headlines on Saturday. Bloomberg News published a headline that read, ‘Live: Russia invades Ukraine’, which stayed on the homepage for nearly half an hour before it was removed. In Germany, Bild published an article detailing what further actions Russia would take once it invades Ukraine. Moscow’s claims that it has no intention of attacking its neighbor went unnoticed, as usual.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has slammed Western media for what she said was stirring up tensions ahead and during the Olympics.
“Bloomberg wrote about ‘a Russian invasion of Ukraine’. The same American [news] agency Bloomberg two weeks ago published fake [news] about ‘Russian-Chinese agreements on the invasion of Ukraine,’” Zakharova wrote on social media on Saturday.

READ MORE: Kremlin responds to Bloomberg ‘invasion’ alert

The spokeswoman also pointed to Saturday's story in German newspaper Bild, which quoted an unspecified foreign intelligence service as claiming that Moscow was preparing to set up a puppet parliament and internment camps in Ukraine after conquering the country.

It’s a global informational [and] political marathon of NATO’s desires. We’ve observed many times how Westerners ruin the Olympic Games. But the current attempt was thought up by real perverts capable of anything.

Zakharova made her statements after talking about the decision to illuminate an iconic World War II monument in Kiev in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Ukraine’s Culture Minister Alexander Tkachenko explained that the illumination symbolized the unity of Ukrainians amid tensions with Russia. “We’re grateful that many countries around the world support our efforts to fight the aggressor,” Tkachenko said.

Bloomberg has apologized for mistakenly publishing the headline ‘Russia invades Ukraine’ on its website on Friday. Last month, Bloomberg quoted an unnamed diplomat in Beijing, who said it was “possible” that Chinese President Xi Jinping asked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin not to attack Ukraine during the Games, which officially kicked off in the Chinese capital on Friday. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at the time that the report was “purely made up out of thin air,” while Russia has repeatedly denied having plans to invade its neighbor.