MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th April, 2020) The Russian embassy in Vienna was surprised by a statement made by Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg claiming that Russia, its allies and China spread misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We are very surprised at the statement made by Alexander Schallenberg, Austrian foreign minister, which was published by APA [Austria Press Agency] claiming that Russia, its allies and China spread disinformation relating to the COVID-19 pandemic," the embassy said in a Facebook post.
The diplomatic mission added that it would be interested to see at least one piece of evidence to substantiate this claim.
"We regret the frequent appearance in the European media, including some Austrian media outlets, of biased, and in some cases absolutely untrue or clearly fabricated mistruths about the situation regarding the spread of the coronavirus disease in Russia, based on rumors and unverified sources," the embassy added.
The fight against false information was one of the main priorities of the coronavirus response center, created by the Russian government to help combat the spread of the disease, the embassy stated.
Russia's permanent representative to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, told Sputnik on Friday that an EU document claiming to demonstrate a Russian disinformation campaign surrounding COVID-19 was "more than strange" amid the ongoing health crisis.
On Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman said that the EU mission in Moscow was spreading disinformation regarding Russia's shipments of humanitarian aid to Italy to help curb the spread of the coronavirus disease.
