Fake News: Why Story of Blackwater Founder's Ties With Russia is 'Inelegant Lie'

© AP Photo / Gerry BroomeIn a July, 21, 2008 file photo, founder and CEO of Blackwater Worldwide Erik Prince is seen at Blackwater's offices in Moyock, N.C. Holland, Mich. native Erik Prince will be talking about his west Michigan roots at a Tulip Time Festival luncheon on Wednesday May 5, 2010
In a July, 21, 2008 file photo, founder and CEO of Blackwater Worldwide Erik Prince is seen at Blackwater's offices in Moyock, N.C. Holland, Mich. native Erik Prince will be talking about his west Michigan roots at a Tulip Time Festival luncheon on Wednesday May 5, 2010 - Sputnik International
Subscribe
The Washington Post story about an alleged meeting between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and “a Russian close to Vladimir Putin" is nothing more than an inelegant lie, Russian political analyst Mikhail Sinelnikov-Orishak told Radio Sputnik.

A former member of Blackwater joines family members, friends, and supporters of four former Blackwater security guards outside the federal court in Washington, Monday, April 13, 2015 - Sputnik International
World
'Nonsense': Kremlin Denies Representative of Putin Met With Blackwater Founder
The Washington Post story claiming that in early January 2017 Russian President Vladimir Putin's representative met with Blackwater private US military company founder Erik Prince is an inelegant lie, a Russian political analyst and expert in American studies, Mikhail Sinelnikov-Orishak, told Radio Sputnik.

On Monday, the media outlet reported that the United Arab Emirates arranged a meeting between Prince and "a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin" as part of an alleged effort "to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and then President-elect Donald Trump."

"US officials said the FBI has been scrutinizing the Seychelles meeting as part of a broader probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and alleged contacts between associates of Putin and Trump," the media outlet claimed.

In response, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced the report as absolutely nonsensical.

"This is complete nonsense," Peskov told reporters, commenting on the issue.

Speaking to Radio Sputnik, Sinelnikov-Orishak remarked that the whole story sounds beyond weird.

"It always surprises me: If you are creating a story, at least do it elegantly, with some details to make it look convincing. As the saying goes, 'Yes, he's lying but he's doing it elegantly.' The allegation that Erik Prince could have acted as a confidant and communicator between Trump and Vladimir Putin is more than odd," Sinelnikov-Orishak said.

People stand by as Syrian civil defence volunteers, known as the White Helmets, dig through the rubble of a mosque following a reported airstrike on a mosque in the village of Al-Jineh in Aleppo province on March 17, 2017 - Sputnik International
US Submitted Draft Resolution on Syria to UNSC Based on Fake Reports - Moscow
According to the Russian political analyst, Prince is a very "controversial person" for such a role.

"Erik Prince is a controversial character, who remains in journalists' crosshairs: all his movements and actions always attract reporters' attention. It would have been more than stupid to choose such an individual for secret, clandestine negotiations," Sinelnikov-Orishak stressed, "It would be much easier to pick some 'John Smith' who allegedly flew to the Seychelles to hold secret talks," he added.

Meanwhile, it has become a popular trend among American mainstream journalists to accuse US politicians of having "ties with Russia," the analyst said.

"There is a big campaign, it's trendy, some of them [US journalists] have apparently convinced themselves that Trump is some sort of a Russian scout and they have to expose him. And they are ready to put all their life on it," Sinelnikov-Orishak noted.

The Russian political analyst assumed that the US mainstream media may soon cook up new stories about secret meetings and negotiations, which have never taken place, to steal the show.

"I think that there will be many [stories about] alleged secret meetings and secret negotiations [in the US mainstream media], and soon some Russian residents will also be 'exposed,'" he suggested ironically.

Russian hacker bear - Sputnik International
Kremlin Blames Fake News for Anti-Russian 'Hysteria' in US
It's hard to hold anyone accountable for making up such stories in the US, Sinelnikov-Orishak said, adding that even unfair reporters are "reliably covered by the First Amendment of the Constitution."

"It is nearly impossible to prove that a journalist was not only lying but that he was doing this conscientiously," the political analyst said.

Meanwhile, the US mainstream media continues to blow the Erik Prince story up.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Illinois 9th Congressional District, a Donald Trump political opponent and Erik Prince's longtime nemesis called for an investigation into the president's ties with the Blackwater founder in an interview with The Intercept.

However, it seems that Prince's real "fault" was that he dared to say that the US and Russia could work together to defeat Islamic terrorism.

In his October 2016 interview with Breitbart, Prince drew historical parallels between the Second World War alliance between the US and the Soviet Union and the ongoing fight against Islamic extremism in Syria.

"We don't have to agree with the Russians on everything, or even on a lot, but we can at least agree that crushing ISIS [Daesh] in the Middle East is a very good idea," Prince said.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала