The British Foreign Office is spreading disinformation, claiming that Russia is allegedly considering the option of bringing to power in Ukraine a government loyal to it, headed by a former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, Yevgeny Muraev.

This was stated in the Russian Foreign Ministry.

“The disinformation spread by the British Foreign Office is another evidence that it is the NATO countries, led by the Anglo-Saxons, who are escalating tensions around Ukraine,” the Foreign Ministry stressed.

In this regard, the department called on the British colleagues to stop provocative activities and "stop spreading nonsense."

A similar appeal was made by the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom.

“We strongly urge London to stop stupid rhetorical provocations, which are very dangerous in the current heated situation, and contribute to real diplomatic efforts to provide reliable guarantees for European security,” the diplomatic mission said in a statement.

  • Publication of the British Foreign Office about Russia's "intentions" towards the government of Ukraine, marked by the Russian Foreign Ministry as a fake

  • © Russian Foreign Ministry

In addition, the embassy noted that the statements of the British authorities regarding the policy attributed to Russia towards Ukraine are due to geopolitical factors.

“Having found itself on the sidelines of real diplomatic processes as a result of its short-sighted line, London sees its role in the constant incitement of anti-Russian sentiment,” TASS quoted a representative of the Russian diplomatic mission as saying.

However, British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, in a commentary to Sky News, threatened Moscow with serious consequences if it tries to install a “puppet regime” in Kiev.

At the same time, he called it unlikely that British troops would be sent to defend Ukraine in the event of a “Russian invasion.”

According to him, London is already participating in training programs for the Ukrainian military.

In support of the campaign

A publication about Russia's "intentions" appeared on the Foreign Office website on January 22.

It claims that Muraev is not the only Ukrainian politician with whom Russian intelligence agencies allegedly maintain contacts.

Among them are Mykola Azarov, Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2010-2014;

Sergei Arbuzov, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2012-2014, who acted as Prime Minister in 2014;

Andriy Klyuev, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2010-2012 and head of the administration of the country's ex-president Viktor Yanukovych;

Volodymyr Sivkovich, former deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine.

“Some of them are in contact with Russian intelligence officers who are currently involved in planning an attack on Ukraine,” the publication stated.

  • British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss

  • AP

  • © Olivier Douliery

In this regard, Foreign Minister Liz Truss said that this information "sheds light on the scope of Russian activities aimed at undermining Ukraine, and allows you to get an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bwhat the Kremlin is thinking."

At the same time, the minister recently got into an awkward situation: speaking in Sydney, she noted that Ukraine had known invasions “from the Mongols to the Tatars” before.

In this regard, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, first asked the head of diplomacy of the United Kingdom: “How many years passed between the two invasions: the Mongols and the Tatars?”, And then the British Foreign Office was advised to “concentrate on studying the history of the Tatar-Mongol yoke.”

At the same time, the US has already reacted to the publication of the Foreign Office.

Emily Horne, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, spoke of "deep concern" in this regard.

Unverified data

According to political analysts, the British Foreign Office in its "revelations" acts rather rudely, not bothering to check the published information.

So, in London, they named the alleged candidate for the post of new president of Ukraine, Yevgeny Muraev, who is under the sanctions of the Russian Federation.

This fact was also pointed out by the politician himself in an interview with the Ukrainian portal "STRANA.ua".

“I have been under Russian sanctions since 2018… My family’s assets have been arrested there.

As for the British intelligence services and the Foreign Office, this is combined with the fact that Russia allegedly wants to appoint me the head of the “occupation government” – this is a question for Mr. Bean,” Muraev said.

  • British Foreign Office building

  • Gettyimages.ru

  • © Alex Segre

And in a comment to the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, he suggested that in this way someone wants to close the Nash TV channel that belongs to him.

“I can hardly digest this nonsense and stupidity.

Perhaps someone wants to close another independent channel, ”the politician admitted.

Muraev became a member of the Rada in 2012.

He was a member of the "Opposition Bloc" and "Opposition Government" factions as Minister of Economic Development and Trade.

He later left the faction due to ideological differences.

He was one of the founders and head of the political council of the For Life party, and in September 2018 he also left it.

He owned the Ukrainian information channel NewsOne, which Muraev sold in October of the same year to MP Taras Kozak.

Now Muraev heads the Nashi party.

Yevgeny Muraev has been under the sanctions of the Russian Federation since December 2018 due to “unfriendly actions against Russian citizens and legal entities by Ukraine.”

Despite this, Sky News claims that the current publication of the UK Foreign Office is based on declassified intelligence, while their country of origin is not specified.

Waiting for provocation

It is worth noting that the Foreign Office issued a portion of unsubstantiated accusations almost after Maria Zakharova suggested that Washington and Kiev might be preparing provocations on the eve of the Beijing Olympics.

“We are waiting for provocations from the United States and the Kiev regime led by them, both informational and, it cannot be ruled out, military ones.

It will happen to them, especially since there is rich experience, ”the diplomat wrote the day before in her Telegram.

This was preceded by the publication of the Bloomberg agency that Chinese President Xi Jinping allegedly asked Vladimir Putin not to invade Ukraine during the Games, which will start on February 4.

According to Zakharova, judging by the American media, Russia "should have 'attacked' for a long time, but it still won't 'attack'."

In this regard, the diplomat called suggestive the creation of an information background in the media - from "general inflation to fakes and stuffing", the visit of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to Ukraine and the American leadership's boycott of the Olympics in China.

  • Symbols of the Winter Olympics in Beijing

  • AP

  • © Ng Han Guan

The official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalled that a similar situation was observed on the eve of the armed conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia in August 2008.

“A year later, the International Commission to Investigate the Circumstances of the War in the South Caucasus in 2008, under the leadership of the ex-UN Representative in Georgia, Heidi Tagliavini, created by the European Union for the international study of the causes of the conflict, in its report dated September 30, 2009, decided: Georgia started the war,” Zakharova emphasized.

Maintaining hysteria

Experts interviewed by RT believe that the new stuffing from the UK was an attempt to support the information campaign launched by the United States.

Moreover, the “revelations” spread by Washington are less and less believed.

“The topic of“ Russian aggression ”has already fed up with the public, people are not interested in listening to stories for so long about the fact that an invasion is about to begin, which still does not begin.

The attention of society needs to be won again, and therefore such theories are invented, which begin to be actively discussed in the press, ”explained political scientist Alexander Asafov.

A similar opinion is shared by the expert of the RISS Research Coordination Center Sergey Ermakov.

He believes that the current campaign has already grown into a real information war, in which even such crudely fabricated fakes are used.

“Britain is helping the United States in every possible way to manipulate not only the consciousness of the Western public, but also to launch propaganda campaigns on the territory of Russia and the post-Soviet space,” Yermakov said.

He also noted that the current development of the topic of the planned "invasion" of Ukraine is being carried out, among other things, to strengthen the anti-Russian foundation on the eve of the NATO summit in Madrid, where a new strategic concept of the alliance will be discussed.

“Based on discussions within the bloc itself, as well as in the expert community, it can be argued that we will talk about more active NATO actions in the so-called gray zones, which include Ukraine.

For this, the topic of allegedly possible Russian aggression is now being supported, so that the vacillating members of the alliance do not object to the further expansion of the bloc in the directions the US needs, ”the analyst argues.

In turn, Alexander Asafov suggested that Yevgeny Muraev was randomly chosen by the British as a "pro-Russian" candidate.

“It could have been any name.

Today, the name Medvedchuk no longer works, so they found him a worthy, as it seemed to London, alternative, ”the analyst explained.

According to him, the current stuffing is part of a vast information campaign to discredit Russia in anticipation of a written response on security guarantees, which Washington is due to transfer to Moscow next week.

“All such statements are needed to build a tense context around the high-level meetings that are taking place between Russia and the United States, Russia and NATO,” Asafov summed up.