Kremlin Media Trying to Discredit the Opposition

At least 15 people have been injured as a result of a dispute at school No. 127 in Perm, Russia. Twelve of the participants of the dispute were taken to hospital. As reported by Russia’s Investigative Committee, two students got into a dispute, which turned into stab wounding. The teachers and peers tried to calm down the participants of the dispute, and, as a result, they were also wounded.

In their coverage of the incident, some media outlets subject to Kremlin manipulated it, and used it for political purposes.

At first, information appeared in media, according to which there was an attack on the school. “Two masked criminals attacked the students and teachers of N127 school”, RIA agency writes.

After some time, it became clear that there was no attack, and the knifemen were the schoolchildren. However, the media continued to circulate false information, targeting the opposition figure Alexei Navalny.

The Federal Russia Today agency released a video from the social network Vkontakte, according to which an unknown user wrote a comment on December 10, 2016, and expressed his support for Navalny. According to the agency, the user was one of the participants of the incident.

Note that Navalny had announced his candidacy for the presidential elections in Russia, but the Central Electoral Commission of the country refused to register him as a candidate. After that, Navalny called for boycotting the elections.

Alexei Navalny is known as an oppositionist who actively fights corruption. He conducts investigations, and presents to the public the illegally acquired property of Russian high-ranking officials. Navalny’s film “He is not Dimon for you” («Он вам не Димон»), which shows Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev’s property, has gathered more than 25 million views.