Zakharova Slams UK Media For Trying To Make People Paranoid About Russia

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th November, 2019) The UK media is trying to drive people insane with their alarmist reporting on Russia, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday, following allegations of Moscow's involvement in the death of James Le Mesurier, one of the White Helmets' co-founders.

Turkish media reported on Monday that Le Mesurier was found dead in the garden of his house in Istanbul. The Primary suspicion for the cause of death is that he fell from his balcony. Later in the week, the UK newspapers published articles containing thinly-veiled accusations of foul play by Russia. Zakharova compared such accusations to a so-called Forrestal Syndrome, named after the first United States' defense secretary, who in 1949 killed himself while staying in a psychiatric ward, where he had been put due to having a nervous breakdown caused by fears of an impending Soviet invasion.

"I understand that we have spoken many times about analogies with the Cold War, but we, I think, have never spoken about, never remembered about Forrestal Syndrome ... He was not injured on a battlefield ... He did not fall during a military exercise. He just went a little bit insane. He underwent medical treatment. He had psychosis," Zakharova said.

She drew parallels to the modern UK coverage of Russia.

"Now this syndrome is being forced upon healthy people. Those British publications aim to make folks with Forrestal Syndrome out of normal people," Zakharova said.

Prior to Le Mesurier's death, Zakharova alleged that he was a former UK intelligence operative who worked through wars in the Balkans and Kosovo.