A Russian lawmaker has resurrected one of the Kremlin’s longest running fake news items, accusing Ukraine of making billions of dollars from the sale of children's organs.
While the false claim has been made many times before, Anna Kuznetsova, the Deputy Speaker of the Russian State Duma, did create a new detail – that Coca-Cola is one of the companies buying them.
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During a press conference on Thursday, Oct. 5, Kuznetsova falsely claimed Ukraine has recently legalized organ transplantation without asking for donor consent or their relatives' opinions.
She asserted that these activities are now contributing 7% of the country's national revenue, which she estimates at $2 billion in US dollars.
"We understand that this system is fixed at the state level," Kuznetsova said.
She added: "While liberating Svetogorsk, our fighters found documents on the sale of children in the orphanage.
“There are references to British Private Military Companies and one of the customers was the Coca-Cola company."
Without offering any evidence, Kuznetsova said a professional kidnapping gang operates in Ukraine and that “about 856 children were forcibly taken away” who are then sold on the dark web.
This latest example of propaganda follows Russian official spokespersons at the highest levels previously putting forward the bizarre and gruesome claim about “black transplantology” and the vast conspiracy that surrounds it.
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That includes statements made by the notorious Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as reported in the Russian State-owned media outlet TASS.
In May, without reference to any evidence and obviously unchallenged by TASS, Zakharova said that illegal organ harvesting in Ukraine is an “accepted and proven fact.”
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