{"id":9501,"date":"2020-03-20T17:31:22","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T21:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=9501"},"modified":"2020-03-20T17:33:50","modified_gmt":"2020-03-20T21:33:50","slug":"russia-slams-great-britain-for-coronavirus-state-propaganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=9501","title":{"rendered":"Russia Slams Great Britain for Coronavirus State Propaganda"},"content":{"rendered":"

KREMLIN SMEARS Russia blames BRITAIN for coronavirus as state propaganda<\/h1>\n

Tom Michael
\nThe Sun<\/p>\n

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RUSSIA has sensationally blamed Britain for coronavirus as state propaganda outrageously linked the Wuhan outbreak with the Skripal novichok attack.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The deadly bug<\/a>\u00a0has infected more than 185,000 and killed over 7,300 around the world since it began in China late last year.<\/p>\n

⚠️ Read our<\/b>\u00a0coronavirus live blog<\/b><\/a>\u00a0for the latest news and updates<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Igor Nikulin claimed Britain was behind the coronavirus outbreak<\/span>Credit: The Big Game, Channel 1<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Russian state TV said Britain made the virus at Porton Down and patented a vaccine<\/span>Credit: The Big Game, Channel 1<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The terrifying spread has\u00a0given rise to a number of wild claims and conspiracy theories<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And Russian state media has now accused the UK of being behind the outbreak,\u00a0Mail Online<\/a>\u00a0reports.<\/p>\n

Microbiologist \u201cexpert\u201d Igor Nikulin told Russian talk show The Big Game that Britain had created coronavirus as a weapon.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe Americans and the British have already announced that they already have a vaccine.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the British I mean Porton Down \u2013 a well-known facility that has for a long time been working with chemical and biological weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to sensationally link Covid-19 to the Salisbury chemical weapon attack, in which Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in 2018.<\/p>\n

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Maybe they smeared something in Wuhan too.”<\/p>\n

Microbiologist ‘Expert’ Igor Nikulin<\/span><\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Russian spooks are widely accepted to have been behind the novichok strike \u2013 but the Kremlin has bizarrely tried to pin it on Britain.<\/p>\n

Nikulin said of Porton Down: \u201cThat’s incidentally the same facility that I suspect was behind smearing the nerve agent on Skripal’s door handle.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe they smeared something in Wuhan, Hubei, too, such as an escalator hand rail on the subway \u2013 something thousands of people touch daily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oliver Dowden, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, said: \u201cWe take disinformation extremely seriously and have brought together cross-government capabilities to give the most comprehensive picture possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople must have access to the correct information and we are working with tech firms to [\u2026] make sure the most reliable sources are promoted online.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Russia is not the first to try to turn the pandemic into a propaganda tool.<\/p>\n

Iran \u2013 which has been one of the worst affected by the bug with 15,000 cases and 853 deaths \u2013 this month\u00a0blamed it on a \u201cUS biological attack\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There have also been a number of other wacky claims, such as China starting the outbreak to \u201ccleanse\u201d itself of elderly citizens and the whole thing being a hoax to stop Brexit.<\/p>\n

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Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in 2018<\/span>Credit: East2west News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Novichok nerve agent was smeared on Skripal’s door handle by Russian spooks<\/span>Credit: PA:Press Association<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The coronavirus outbreak began in Wuhan, China<\/span>Credit: AFP or licensors<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Chinese President Xi Jinping visits quarantined residents and workers in coronavirus epicentre Wuhan<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The most common signs of coronavirus in confirmed cases of Covid-19 from China up to February 22, 2020<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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\nhttps:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/news\/11190739\/russia-blames-britain-coronavirus-skripal-novichok\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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KREMLIN SMEARS Russia blames BRITAIN for coronavirus as state propaganda<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}