German Foreign Ministry Refuses To Comment On Inclusion Of RT, Sputnik In Intel Report

(@FahadShabbir)

German Foreign Ministry Refuses to Comment on Inclusion of RT, Sputnik in Intel Report

The German Foreign Office on Friday refused to comment on the inclusion of Russia's Sputnik news agency and RT Deutsch broadcaster into the country's annual intelligence reports

BERLIN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th July, 2020) The German Foreign Office on Friday refused to comment on the inclusion of Russia's Sputnik news agency and RT Deutsch broadcaster into the country's annual intelligence reports.

Earlier this week, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and counter-intelligence chief Thomas Haldenwang presented the 388-page 2019 Report on the Protection of the Constitution, which says that RT Deutsch and Sputnik play a "central role" in exerting pro-Russian influence in Germany.

"I think that we do not need to comment on this. The report on the protection of the constitution said about this and yesterday, there was a press conference on this matter .... I have nothing to comment on," Rainer Breul, the spokesman for the German Foreign Office, told reporters.

Earlier this week, Sputnik Deutschland chief Sergey Feoktistov recalled that Sputnik was already included in Germany's annual intelligence reports in 2018 and 2019 and was featured in its section on espionage and other subversive activities.

On Thursday, when asked about reasons behind the inclusion by a Sputnik Deutschland correspondent at a press conference, Haldenwang only said that the news agency had covered protests in Berlin and inflated the numbers of participants, according to Feoktistov. The journalist went on to argue that the news agency has always "used only the official figures of either the police or the organizers."

Over the past several years, Russian media, especially RT and Sputnik, have faced significant pressure in the United States and the European Union over the alleged spread of propaganda and fake news. RT and Sputnik refute the accusations as a campaign against alternative viewpoints, saying that no credible proof of them spreading fake news has ever been provided.