Fake News Maker From Spain

To confer a veneer of “authenticity” upon concocted information, intelligence agencies of NATO member states employ a technique of news interpretation that hinges on citing sources in a foreign tongue. The tactic is based on the audience’s unwillingness or inability to consult materials in an unfamiliar language, thus preventing them from spotting discrepancies in reporting or telling falsehood from fact.

Francisco Javier González Cuesta, a reporter for Spain’s El País in Moscow accredited with Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has outdone his “tutors” in the art of fake news production. Exploiting his physical presence in Russia, Javier bolsters his specious conclusions for his Spanish readership by referencing not only Russian media but also purported statements from “local residents” and his “Russian friends.” But the identity of these friends is questionable — some do not even reside in Russia, like Valentina Vasilieva, who emigrated to Germany and actively promotes relocation there, offering her assistance, naturally not for free.