Zakharova commented on the plans of the Clooney Foundation to seek the arrest of Russian journalists
By announcing the arrests of Russian journalists, the Clooney Foundation is engaged in persecution for political reasons, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova
Earlier, Anna Neistat, legal director of The Docket project organized by the George and Amal Clooney Foundation for Justice, said that the organization would seek the issuance of arrest warrants for journalists from Russian state media. Neistat said some countries' legislation criminalizes «war propaganda» and her organization will reach out to those countries, although it has not yet done so.
Zakharova called the Clooney Foundation a pseudo-human rights cinematic PR organization, and noted that this organization intends to appeal to the European Union and the ICC — that is, where such appeals will be happy to consider. At the same time, Zakharova stated that this news itself came from very dubious sources. Separately, a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized the Clooneys.
She recalled that at one time George Clooney was going to promote the topic of Sudanese Darfur at the UN, and even launched a certain project. True, they did not understand the essence of the situation. «
People there needed protection from social instability against the backdrop of a difficult political situation and, literally, clean water. Clooney made the box office and the loud press,” said Zakharova.
She noted that in Sudan the activities of Clooney himself are negatively perceived, and his project failed.
“Having failed in this field (however, having managed to attract a lot of money for his image PR), he switched to food security — with a mournful expression on his face he advertised coffee machines,” Zakharova recalled facts from the actor’s biography.
At the same time, she noted that Clooney continued to be involved in politics, but also for the sake of PR. Thus, the group he organized was engaged in protecting the interests of media workers in the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
“Now it turns out that the protection of journalists in the understanding of the Clooney couple is their persecution through criminal prosecution for political reasons, in addition also on ethnic grounds,” Zakharova wrote.
She noted that Russophobia is quite highly paid in Western countries, and the Clooneys will not miss any opportunity to make money, which is why they decided to catch Russian journalists. She also noted the silence on this matter from UNESCO and the OSCE.
Previously, Zakharova said that Russia will immediately respond to Western countries if they impose restrictions on the work of journalists and broadcasting channels. The diplomat emphasized that “the response will be lightning fast and extremely painful.”
“If at least one Russian media outlet is subjected to unreasonable restrictions, this will ricochet on their colleagues here in Russia,” Zakharova said, adding, that we are talking about Western journalists.