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What Medvedev never said: Reuters misquotes Russian PM on ‘new world war’

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev © Ekaterina Shtukina/

A Reuters article quoted Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as “raising the specter of a world war” in an interview to a German newspaper. The problem is – he didn’t say any such words.

The leading world news agency reported on an interview that Medvedev gave Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper on the eve of talks on Syria in Munich.

“All sides must be compelled to sit at the negotiating table, instead of unleashing a new world war,” the agency quoted the head of the Russian government as saying.

The report referred to a German translation of his words, which is incorrect and implies that Russia is warning that a full-scale war between leading world powers may be ignited from the Syrian conflict.

The quote comes from the portion of the interview in which Medvedev argued against starting a foreign ground intervention against Syria, saying it would only prolong the armed conflict for years or decades to come.

Medvedev’s actual words, according to the Russian transcript on PM’s website were:

“What is necessary is to use strong measures, including those taken by Russia, by the Americans and even under certain provisions those that the Turks are trying to take, to sit at the negotiating table, instead of unleashing yet another war on Earth. We know all too well the scenarios leading to that.”

The misquotation incident is the second in February involving a senior world official and the Syrian conflict. Earlier, The Financial Times claimed that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon blamed Russia for the collapse of the Syrian peace talks.

In a letter to the FT viewed by RT, Ban’s office said that the quotes of the secretary general used in the article were “technically correct” but taken out of context and “framed in a way that attributes to him direct language that is incorrect.” In particular, author Sam Jones made it appear that Ban Ki-moon had singled out Russia and the Syrian government in describing the difficulties that the peace process is facing, which he didn’t do.

The office requested that a correction be published to accurately reflect what the Secretary-General actually said.

Source:

https://alethonews.wordpress.com/2016/02/12/what-medvedev-never-said-reuters-misquotes-russian-pm-on-new-world-war/

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: From Reader George: Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has
: warned that the demands of some Arab countries to send
: ground forces into Syria risks starting a new world war.

: In a wide-ranging exclusive Handelsblatt interview, Mr.
: Medvedev said sending troops to Syria risks drawing
: “everyone taking part in it into a war” and drastically
: escalating the conflict.
: “All ground operations, as a rule, lead to permanent wars,” he
: said. “The Americans must consider – both the U.S.
: president and our Arab partners – whether or not they want
: a permanent war.”
: “We must make everyone sit down at the negotiating
: table…rather than start yet another world war,” the Russian
: prime minister added.

: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have called for
: sending ground troops into the region and have asked the
: United States to take the lead in such an offensive.
: Instead, Mr. Medvedev said Russians and Americans in
: particular should exert pressure on the war-faring parties
: in Syria to reach a settlement for a truce.

: Mr. Medvedev justified Russia’s own military campaign in Syria
: as designed to prevent terrorists from attacking other
: European cities. The air strikes were necessary to avoid
: “brainwashed murderers” returning to Europe and doing “the
: same as what they did in the past in the North Caucasus, in
: Moscow and other Russian cities, what they did in Paris and
: all over the world, including the United States.”

: Mr. Medvedev also sharply critized Europe’s policy on dealing
: with the stream of refugees that have come from Syria,
: calling “all-out and total failure, an all-round fiasco”
: that risked causing another terrorist attack in Europe. It
: was “silly” for Europe to simply open its borders to all
: asylum seekers, he said.
: “Some of these people – and it’s not just a few strange
: individuals or utter scoundrels, but hundreds and possibly
: thousands – are entering Europe as potential time bombs,
: and they will fulfill their missions as robots when they
: are told to,” he warned, adding that it was “almost
: impossible” to identify such terrorist cells among the
: waves of refugees.
: Mr. Medvedev called for an end to the sanctions imposed on
: Russia by Europe and the United States, and said the
: European Union should take the lead in bringing them to an
: end.

: “We are waiting for our E.U. colleagues to make the first
: move,” he said. Europe should find the “courage to admit
: that the economic sanctions should be lifted because they
: haven’t done anything good for either Europe or Russia.”

: The prime minister also blamed western nations for breaking
: off dialogue with Russia following its annexation of Crimea
: from Ukraine, and said the end of talks risked a return to
: the days of the Cold War and the Iron Curtain.

: “They shouldn’t have done this as this hasn’t benefited
: anyone….There’s nothing left of this trust now,” he said,
: adding: “We can close the curtain and refuse to talk with
: one another. I believe that this would be a huge political
: mistake.”
: In the run-up to the Munich Security Conference, Mr. Medvedev
: called for closer cooperation between Russia and western
: nations to combat the challenges of security and terrorism.
: Exclusive: Russia’s Medvedev Warns of New World War -
: Handelsblatt Global Edition