Putin’s spokesman says Russia doesn’t believe fake news CNN either

The Russian TASS News Agency reported that the matter of Syria will be fully discussed in the upcoming July 16 Presidential Summit between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and America’s Donald Trump. This was affirmed by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

However, CNN claimed that the US President would make a deal with Mr. Putin that would allow him to pull US troops completely out of Syria. The Russian response to this was quite skeptical.

“I have no idea what the CNN report is based on, or if there is anything factual behind this report. We know nothing about it and it makes you wonder,” Peskov said, elucidating that he can’t understand where the TV network got their information from.

“They say Trump is going to negotiate this issue. We know nothing about what Trump is going to discuss. There can be no doubts that Syria will be covered comprehensively at the summit, though. A rather detailed discussion on Syria is anticipated.”

CNN has already made a reputation for itself in the United States among conservatives and Trump supporters about its extremely dishonest, often complete fabrications that it passes off as news. What is less widely known is that this reputation has spread far beyond the American borders.

Currently, TASS is running five other pieces that address problems with the American network and its lack of truthful reporting. For example, a report dated October 2017 reported the following bizarre story:

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has excoriated CNN’s claims that supposed Russian-linked structures allegedly used the popular Pokemon Go mobile game application to exacerabte the already mounting racial divide plauging the US.

“According to CNN’s logic, African Americans shape their civic stances by playing Pokemons,” Zakharova wrote on Facebook. “That is how feebly the TV channel explains the surge of racial tensions in modern America. Russians are at fault again…and the Pokemons they control.“

Another report from July of the same year contained a minor jab from the Kremlin suggesting that CNN would do better if it verified its news was even real.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has advised CNN’s Washington office to use verified information in order to clean up the company’s image.

During Thursday’s press briefing, Peskov answered a question from a CNN reporter if Russian President Vladimir Putin planned to travel to Istanbul shortly after the G20 summit in Hamburg, according to information of the company’s Washington office.

“It [Washington office] has been making a lot of mistakes lately. You should advise them to be more careful and use information, which is more verified. This will help your image,” Peskov said.

And a third linked report discussed the false reporting from the network that claimed false ideas about a child covered with ash in Aleppo because of Russian military activity:

The Russian Foreign Ministry will take more measures regarding the CNN report on three-year-old Omran Daqneesh, who was allegedly injured during the Russian Aerospace Forces’ operation in Aleppo, the ministry’s official spokeswoman has said.

Maria Zakharova said in a Rossiya 1 TV channel broadcast on Tuesday that the ministry’s two demands that the channel apologize for the report, which was publicly refuted by the boy’s father, produced no result.

“I promise that this story will not be let off as easy as CNN would want to,” the spokeswoman said, adding that the report was intended to manipulate the public opinion.

“I think that tomorrow we will definitely send a letter to the Moscow office. We have twice called on the channel to somehow react and apologize for de-facto substituting the information,” Zakharova added.

With a history like this in both Russia and the United States, it is no wonder that the claims made ahead of an extremely important summit are being treated with very casual skepticism.