The official representative of the US State Department, the person - the Runet meme and her most scandalous mistake. Let's find out if it really happened.

On June 20, 2014, news appeared in the Russian media that the official representative of the US State Department Jennifer Psaki has once again demonstrated its incompetence in matters of international politics and geography.

Ostensibly in response to a question from AP journalist Matt Lee about Ukrainian women and children who are arriving in large numbers in Russian regions, Psaki said that there are no refugees from Ukraine in Russia, and in Ukraine itself the situation is calm and controlled by the United States: “They’re just tourists. For example, they say that in the Rostov mountains there is wonderful healing mountain air.”

This was followed by jokes about the geographical knowledge of the American diplomat. “Jen Psaki never explained where mountain resorts came from in the Rostov region,” writes Lenta.ru

Internet publications Lenta.ru And Vesti.ru referred to an article by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (now removed from the site), the official publication of the Russian government. RG itself referred to a regional publication DonNews. But the Rostov Internet media did not refer to anyone. However, journalists found out that the quote was first heard in the program “Politics” aired on Channel One on June 17. One of the presenters of the program, Alexander Gordon, spoke about the dialogue. He also read the above quote.

True, journalist Matt Lee, on the same day the publications went out, wrote on his Twitter that Psaki's quote is fake. And not only Psaki’s answer, but also the question itself and the entire dialogue in general were made up from beginning to end.

In the transcripts of daily briefings, which are published On the website of the US State Department, there are no traces of such a dialogue either. Thus, the totality of all available data leaves no doubt that it is indeed fictitious. What we have before us is pure fakery.

Journalists of the publication Slon (currently Republic) tried contact the press service of Channel One. They promised to provide an official comment when they “understood the situation.” But no official comment on this story has ever appeared.

In addition, journalists tried to reach Gordon personally. At first he was not in touch. Then someone managed to contact the TV presenter, and he said that bribes from him were fine. They say that whatever the editor gives him, he reads. This, by the way, is quite consistent with standard television practice. Well, the editor is not a public person and did not give any comments to anyone. Therefore, we do not yet know who exactly invented this story and for what purpose.