“Regarding these provocations, the FSB (Federal Security Service) reports that most of these planted news come from abroad and this unfortunately always follows us around,” Putin said during a meeting with the government.
“Thank God, there is nothing critical happening here but people must be informed of the real situation so I ask that this process is properly organized," he added.
During the session, deputy prime minister Tatyana Golikova said that social media reports claiming the Russian government was covering up the real number of coronavirus cases in the country were not true.
In late February, an explosive claim by the US State Department that thousands of Russian-linked accounts on Facebook and Twitter were spreading disinformation about the virus made the headlines.
Social media companies, however, said they had not seen supporting evidence. Russia's Foreign Ministry has denied the allegations of being behind the alleged coronavirus disinformation campaign.
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