WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange. File photoSt. PETERSBURG, June 17 Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the decision to extradite Julian Assange a complete disgrace and proof that the West's words about human rights are lies and deceit.» ugliness on the one hand, and on the other hand, a very revealing story of what we have always been talking about — all the words about freedom, about the principled attitude to human rights — it's all a lie, a deceit, some kind of smoke screen. And inside — an absolutely rigid mechanism , not just tough, but cruel and, by and large, on the verge of misanthropy,» Zakharova told reporters on the sidelines of the SPIEF.Mélenchon promised to grant French citizenship to Assange, she added that it was «a desire to take revenge on the person who, from their point of view, hurt them.» Earlier, Wikileaks reported that British Home Secretary Priti Patel approved the extradition of the founder of the Assange project to the United States, where he faces 175 years of imprisonment. The organization called this decision a «dark day» for the issue of freedom of speech. Assange rose to prominence in 2006 in connection with his work on the WikiLeaks website, founded to publish classified documents. In 2010, the site released classified US military footage showing at least 18 civilians killed in the 2007 US helicopter attack in Baghdad. In 2010, the site also began publishing 250,000 US diplomatic documents. In addition, Assange hosted a program on the RT channel, the premiere of a TV project called The World Tomorrow on Russia Today took place on April 17, 2012. Assange, accused in Sweden in 2010 of sexual harassment and rape, has been hiding since June 2012 at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, fearing extradition. On the morning of April 11, 2019, he was detained at the request of the United States. Extradition hearings began on May 2, 2019. Shortly thereafter, the US authorities announced that they had filed new charges against Assange for 17 counts of violating the law on espionage and disclosing classified information. Assange in the USA the apotheosis of humanism
