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Top Russian officials have weighed in on the Kate Middleton photo editing saga after the foreign ministry hit out at UK diplomats for ‘meddling’ in Putin’s presidential elections with pro-Ukraine social media posts.
Senior Russian Foreign Ministry official Maria Zakharova waded into speculation over discord in the royal family and rounded on the Princess of Wales’ admission she edited the now-notorious Mother’s Day portrait that was released by Kensington Palace.
‘It turned out that previous photographs of the English royal family are also photo montages,’ Zakharova said, before going on to make an extraordinary claim that the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was also a product of British fakery.
‘Do you now understand how the whole story with the Skripals was concocted in London?’ Zakharova declared.
Skripal, a former agent in Russia’s GRU intelligence service, defected to Britain and was living in exile in Salisbury when he and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent in 2018.
Britain insists the incident – which led to the death of local woman Dawn Sturgess who succumbed to the effects of Novichok – was an assassination bid carried out by scorned members of the GRU.
Zakharova’s outlandish accusations came as the UK’s chargé d’affaires in Moscow Tom Dodd was called into the Russian Foreign Ministry for a dressing-down over ‘unacceptable propaganda publications by British diplomatic missions in our country during the election for Russian president’.
Senior Russian Foreign Ministry official Maria Zakharova (pictured with Vladimir Putin) waded into speculation over discord in the royal family and rounded on the Princess of Wales’ admission she edited the now-notorious Mother’s Day portrait
‘It turned out that previous photographs of the English royal family are also photo montages,’ Zakharova said in a jibe at the British royals
British Embassy officials got themselves in hot water with the Kremlin after posting social media messages condemning Russia’s elections in occupied Ukraine
The Russian news outlet Gazeta.ru’s report about the fake report on the death of King Charles III
The UK’s chargé d’affaires in Moscow Tom Dodd was called in to the Russian Foreign Ministry for a dressing-down over ‘unacceptable propaganda publications by British diplomatic missions in our country during the election for Russian president’
The ministry said British Embassy social media posts, which stressed Russia had ‘no legal grounds’ for holding elections in occupied Ukrainian territory, were ‘presented in a poster style and geared toward disrupting the electoral process in Russia’s new territories’.
‘It was recommended that the (British Embassy) should better focus on the situation in the United Kingdom where a crisis of power is clearly brewing,’ the ministry’s statement concluded.
The statement, and the royal jab from Zakharova, come just days after Russian media outlets also carried a fake story reporting that King Charles III had died.
A host of Russian news sites and their associated social media accounts reported on Monday the King had died aged 75 as a result of cancer complications, citing unnamed ‘media’ sources, in an inexplicable stream of posts.
An image of a clearly fake statement from ‘Buckingham Palace’ reporting Charles’ ‘unexpected death’ was also circulated on social media.
‘King Charles III of Great Britain has died at the age of 75, according to media reports,’ Russian newswire Sputnik reported.
‘There is no information about this on the royal family website or in the British media.’
But minutes later their stories were updated after they were forced to climb down following reports the King was in fact not dead.
The British Embassy in Moscow then furiously posted on X: ‘Reports of the death of King Charles III of Great Britain are fake!’
Sergei Skripal with daughter Yulia Skripal in the UK
Vladimir Putin speaks at a press conference at his campaign headquarters after being named the winner of the Russian election
A woman takes a photograph with her phone in front of a screen showing preliminary vote results from the Russian presidential election at the Central Election Commission in Moscow
Kate was recently filmed in Windsor by shopper Nelson Silva, 40 (pictured)
Other British Embassy officials got themselves in hot water with the Kremlin after posting social media messages condemning Russia’s elections in occupied Ukraine.
‘All of (the occupied territories) are part of Ukraine, and holding elections here will not make these territories Russian,’ Britain’s consul general in Yekaterinburg Ameer Kotecha said.
Russia’s foreign ministry slammed the post and others, declaring: ‘We stressed the absolute inadmissibility of such activities, which are seen as interference in Russia’s domestic affairs and a hostile attempt at exerting pressure on the independent electoral system in our country and influencing the election results.
‘Despite the West’s aggressive attempts to discredit the presidential election in Russia, its outcome vividly demonstrated the unprecedented union of the Russian people who support the incumbent head of state and his policy.‘
Earlier this week, Vladimir Putin railed against the West in a speech following his victory in Russia’s elections this past weekend.
The 71-year-old strongman ranted that ‘there is no democracy in the West’ after he was questioned about the validity of the election by journalists, before claiming Russia’s elections were more transparent than those in the United States.
The Russian despot is on course to stay in power for another six years after winning a record post-Soviet landslide – a term that would enable him to overtake Josef Stalin and become Russia’s longest-serving leader for more than 200 years.
Putin won 87.8% of the vote according to an exit poll by pollster the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM).
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