Italian newspaper refuses to publish Russian FM Lavrov's interview

The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera has refused to publish an interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Ministry told TASS, Report informs.

"In recent months, we have been seeing a growing number of fake news about Russia. In order to somehow halt this flow of lies, we offered one of Italy's leading newspapers, Corriere della Sera, to take an exclusive interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov," it said.

"The newspaper's editorial desk agreed with enthusiasm" and handed over a lot of questions for the interview, the ministry said, adding that the minister "gave an exhaustive answer" to each of them. "The text was prepared quite swiftly and was ready to be published. However, the newspaper refused to publish Lavrov's answers to its own questions," the ministry noted.

"They ‘explained' that Lavrov's words ‘have too many questionable assertions that need to be verified or clarified and their publication would go beyond reasonable boundaries.' We suggested that an abridged version be published in the newspaper's printed edition and the full text be posted on its website. However, the editorial desk turned down this proposal. We consider this a manifestation of blatant censorship," the ministry stressed.