“The United States has information that Russia is planning to stage fabricated attacks by Ukrainian military or intelligence forces as a pretext for a further invasion of Ukraine. One possible option the Russians are considering, and which we made public today, involves the production of a propaganda video, a video with graphic scenes of false explosions depicting corpses, crisis actors pretending to be mourners, and images of destroyed locations or military equipment, entirely fabricated by Russian intelligence.” “What evidence do you have to support the idea that there is some propaganda film in the making?” “Matt, this is derived from information known to the U.S. government, intelligence information that we have declassified. I think you know —” “OK, well, where, where is it? Where is this information?” “It is intelligence information that we have declassified.” “Well, where is it? Where is the declassified information?” “I just delivered it.” “No, you made a series of allegations and say them —” “Would you like us to print it out the topper? Because you will see a transcript of this briefing that you can print out for yourself.” “That’s not evidence, Ned. That’s you saying it. That’s not evidence. I’m sorry.” “It seems to me that it should not be outlandish that the Russians may be engaging in this activity again.” “Not being outlandish doesn’t mean that you have any proof that has happened or being planned.” “The second point, the second point —” “Hold on, Ned, you can’t just — all of that may very well be true, probably is true, OK. But it doesn’t provide any evidence of what you’re alleging now.”
U.S. Accuses Russia of Planning to Fabricate an Attack by Ukraine
