BBC’s Newsnight clearly touched a nerve (agent?) when interviewing editor-in-chief of the state-run RT news channel (formerly known as Russia Today) Margarita Simonyan last night.
Questioning the journalist about an extraordinary interview with the men suspected of poisoning the Skripals with Novichok, in which they claimed they were simply visiting Salisbury for its tourist attractions (the cathedral is “famous for its 123-metre spire”, they informed her), presenter Kirsty Wark asked if she believed their story.
“As far as the story goes, I don’t have any reasons to believe them… But I have no more reasons to believe secret services who have been lying previously,” Simonyan said.
When she was pushed on whether the manner of the interview fed into the view of RT as a “propaganda tool for the Russian state”, Simonyan responded that she had made the interviewees feel uncomfortable and concluded: “Your question to me seems like typical Western propaganda.”
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As Wark tried to ask her one final question about the footage of the two men, Simonyan continued, saying her interview with them was “nothing like what you’re saying it was, nothing like, thank you very much”.
She then promptly hung up.
Watch it here:
Margarita Simonyan, ‘an ardent Putin supporter’#RT, can’t handle Kirsty Wark and hangs up the phone!!! #RussiaToday #Newsnight #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/k27BcT8oG4
— Seid Goro (@SeidGoro) September 13, 2018