“Photo evidence”
A spokesperson for the Libyan National Army, Ahmed Al-Mismari, denounced recent speculation of British media about some “300 Russian mercenaries” supporing LNA operations as false. He said that these claims are ridiculous.
The Telegraph claimed citing anonymous sources on March 3 that Russian mercenaries are deployed in Libya to suupport LNA operation. According to the report, their base is located in Benghazi.
A previous wave of media speculations about mysterious Russian fighters supporting the LNA took place in October 2018. Then, British media outlets citing anonymous sources were claiming that Russia had 2 military bases in the country and even deployed S-300 air defense systems. It is not surprising that these reports appeared to be fake news.
Another interesting factor is that the number of “Russian mercenaries” in Libya provided by The Telegraph sounds similar to recent MSM speculations about “Russian mercenaries” in Venezuela. In January, multiple Western media were claiming that about 300-400 Russian private military contractors were deployed in Venezuela to support the Maduro government. These claims were a part of the wider media campaign to demonize the Maduro government and to cast a shadow on the Russian-Venezuelan relations.
While there is no doub in the growing influence of the Russian governmetn and Russia-linked contractors around the world, especially in the Middle East, most of the aforementioned reports are just a part of the coordinated media campaign, which is designed to oppose Russian influence.
The only problem of this campaign is an obvious lack of the creativity. Even numbers of Russian mercenaries involved look similar. Probably somebody should stop watching Hollywood movies before providing “exclusive info” to the mainstream media.
“The 300’s”, would be a great name for a brothers in arms, unit.