Russian diplomacy lambasts disinformation circulated by Algerian Echourouk paper

It is common knowledge now that the Algerian media, at the instigation of the military rulers, fabricates news to serve the propaganda of the Algerian regime. In another desperate move of the king, Algiers tried to disseminate false information on relations between Morocco and Russia, linked since 2016 by a deep strategic partnership.

“The practice of stuffing through disinformation, widely used by the Western media, seems to be adopted by certain Maghreb colleagues, who do not want to give in to their seasoned comrades – neither in the manipulation of facts, nor in the propagation of shameless lies” writes the Russian Foreign Ministry on its website, alluding to an article in the Arabic-language newspaper Echorouk, a media considered by several specialists as an implement of Algerian intelligence propaganda.

An article entitled “Algeria is at the origin of the outbreak of a crisis between Russia and Morocco”, disseminated by the Algerian medium is “a classic example of disinformation and fallacious analysis” comments the MID website.

The author of Echorouk article listed some isolated facts to infer that “Russian-Moroccan relations have reached their limits” and “are going through a crisis, although diligently covered up by both sides.”

“Reading such things, we realize that some live in a parallel universe and are totally unaware that the Covid-19 pandemic has been raging throughout the world since 2020. Since the fall of this year, many countries, including Russia, are facing a new wave of contaminations. Thus, the Moroccan authorities took the decision to suspend flights due to the deterioration of the sanitary and epidemiological situation in Russia. There is no political reason here,” explains the Russian site.

Information on a cooling of relations with Morocco following a rapprochement with Algeria “do not correspond to reality and only exist in the imagination of the journalist of the newspaper Echourouk (…)”

It is a pity that the Echourouk journalist simply published a false, pseudo-analytical paper, apparently in the hope of winning the favor of some sides, Russian diplomacy says.

Besides, both Russia and Morocco had expressed their perplexity at the fake news propagated by a number of media on the alleged strain in relations between Moscow and Rabat.

Actually, during a meeting, held last week in Moscow, the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for the Middle East and African Countries and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and the Moroccan Ambassador to Moscow Lotfi Bouchaara “expressed their deep astonishment following the unfounded information propagated by a number of media on an alleged cooling of relations between Moscow and Rabat,” the Russian Foreign Ministry had then said in a press release.

They convened that the multifaceted and mutually beneficial Russian-Moroccan cooperation is developing dynamically, and highlighted the active role played in this joint work by the Russian Ambassador to Morocco, Valerian Shuvaev, the press release added.

The two officials discussed the upcoming holding in Moscow of the 8th meeting of the Moroccan-Russian Joint Cooperation Commission as well as preparations for the 6th ministerial session of the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum that was initially scheduled to be held in Marrakech on October 28.

The Forum, postponed because of constraints related to the Covid-19 pandemic, will be held by the end of this year, at a date to be set in coordination between the two sides.