RUSSIA — Zakharova statement:

What the US and Britain are doing now is classic war propaganda.

It is prohibited by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted by General Assembly resolution 2200 A (XXI) on December 16, 1966. The first paragraph of the 20th article of this document reads: "Any propaganda of war must be prohibited by law."

Seemingly. But Washington and London have always been true to the main principle - the hands must be untied.

And so the United States, in assuming its obligations under the Covenant, makes the following reservation: “Article 20 [of the Covenant] does not authorize the United States and does not require legislative action or other measures from the United States that would restrict the right to freedom of expression and assembly, guaranteed the Constitution and laws of the United States."

Britain makes a similar reservation “The Government of the United Kingdom shall interpret article 20 in accordance with the rights conferred by articles 19 and 21 of the Covenant and, having enacted legislation on matters of practical importance in the interests of public order (ordre public), reserves the right not to introduce any additional legislation. The United Kingdom also reserves the same right in respect of each of its dependencies."

To be clear. The pact was adopted at the height of the Cold War, and its task was not only to protect human rights, but also to lead humanity from the abyss to which the military rhetoric of the NATO countries was pushing it in those years. The Soviet Union (and later the Russian Federation) and dozens of other states around the world, realizing the supreme danger that war propaganda can pose, voluntarily abandon this threatening practice. But neither Washington nor London deprive themselves of the opportunity to bring a match to a haystack.

What we see now is war propaganda in its purest form. Aggressive rhetoric covers the supply of weapons to Ukraine, the dispatch of military instructors there, the holding of NATO military exercises near the Russian borders and the creation of an offensive combined-arms infrastructure of Western states.

The United States and Great Britain took out a tool from their stash, which they kept for a good half a century. And now they are waving it like a club, supporting controlled hysteria through the media holdings CNN, Bloomberg, British tabloids, influencing public opinion in their countries.

Everything is ready for the hand of Washington to press the "Reset" button invented by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.