Italy's La Stampa Regrets Russian Defense Ministry's Response To Aid Criticism

Italy's La Stampa daily hit back at the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday saying that the latter's response to the criticism of Russia's coronavirus aid was offensive

ROME (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd April, 2020) Italy's La Stampa daily hit back at the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday saying that the latter's response to the criticism of Russia's coronavirus aid was offensive.

Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a ministerial official, lashed out at the paper on Thursday, saying it was trying to "discredit" Russia's medical aid to the virus-hit country after La Stampa cited unnamed sources who described the delivery of respirators and ventilators as useless and questioned Russia's motives.

"Our newspaper has described the Russian aid to Italy... as a show of friendship and solidarity... At the same time some of our stories have reported about concerns, in Italy and elsewhere, about the possible presence of military intelligence agents in the Russian mission.

These are two sides of the same story that our journalists reported on with equal professionalism. We are sorry and surprised that this example of freedom of information has vexed the Russian Defense Ministry," the paper replied.

La Stampa's editorial board "expressed disdain" at the general's reaction to a series of its articles that raised doubts about motives of Russian medical experts who came to the country last month to help it deal with the outbreak of the coronavirus, which has infected 83,049 people in the country and killed 13,915.