Comment on the article “Revealed: Russia’s secret plan to help Julian Assange escape from UK” in The Guardian

On September 21, the British newspaper The Guardian published an article entitled, “Revealed: Russia’s secret plan to help Julian Assange escape from UK.” Quoting unnamed sources, the newspaper claims that Russian diplomats held secret talks with Assange’s representatives in London to find out whether they could help him escape from the UK. The article contains many similar Russophobic insinuations.

We would like to emphasise that Russian diplomats have not contacted either the officials at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London or Assange’s representatives with a view to helping him leave Britain. Let’s make a note that attempts to present meetings with Ecuadoran diplomats in the Russian Embassy as part of some conspiracy are beyond criticism. The Russian Embassy in London maintains a broad range of contacts and conducts numerous regular meetings with representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in the UK, which is normal diplomatic practice in any country.

We would also like to quote Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks about the situation involving Assange during the annual news conference on the performance of Russian diplomacy on January 15 of this year: “I fully agree that this problem should definitely be solved in one way or another. We accept the actions taken by the Ecuadorian authorities with understanding. I hope that all other participants, too, will be guided by common sense, including our British and Swedish colleagues, who seem to be ready to display goodwill and finally resolve this problem.”

www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/21/julian-assange-russia-ecuador-embassy-london-secret-escape-plan?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other