Russian newspaper shamed by US Embassy over fake LGBT letters
The US Embassy in Russia has taken a newspaper to task over stories based on a forged letter from the embassy.
The letter, which included a number of spelling and grammatical errors, was published in one of Russia’s major newspapers.
Claiming to be from the US Embassy, it was addressed to LGBT activist Nikolai Alekseyev.
It claimed to be from Obama’s newly appointed Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons, Randy Berry.
It suggested that he had been tasked with spreading rumours about the sexual orientations of Russian politicians.
The Embassy responded with a ‘corrected’ version of the letter, including notes like the one which questions why Embassy staff would use a Gmail account to send emails.
The note at the bottom of the letter, written in Russian, reads: “Dear Izvestia, next time you are going to use fake letters — send them to us. We’ll be happy to correct the mistakes. Sincerely yours, Dept of State.”
The corrections are of the same vein as a UK-based artist who marked his hate mail earlier this year.
Conor Collins marked the hate mail he received after making a portrait of Caitlyn Jenner.
