A Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman warned Tuesday that the U.S. media has become “dangerous” for reporting that President Trump provided classified information to the country’s officials last week.
“Guys, have you been reading American papers again? Don’t read them,” Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. “They can be used for different things but not for reading. Lately, it’s become more than just harmful. It’s become dangerous.”
Her comments were retweeted by the Russian Embassy in the United States.
Anonymous sources cited by the Washington Post and other news outlets said Trump disclosed classified information during a meeting at the White House with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that could be used to expose covert sources helping to fight the Islamic State.
Zakharova wrote that she had predicted that the U.S. media would report a “sensation” about the meeting, which included Russian state media but not American press.
Russian state media immediately released photos last week of Trump shaking hands with the two officials while the U.S. media was forced to run those images.
“The plan was also to dress it up with ‘top secret’ photos from the meeting, which would make another fake news look valid and reliable,” Zakharova wrote. “But we ruined this part of the media campaign by publishing the photos in line with the professional ethics standards.”
