Vladimir Kornilov of RIA Novosti admitted that Russia would use Emma Raducanu’s decides to hire a Russian tennis coach as propaganda. The comments came as Russian experts on state TV channel Russia-1 ridiculed Britain’s “paranoia” after Labor MP Chris Bryant encouraged the 19-year-old to reconsider her decision to reach out to Dmitry Tursunov. Kornilov picked up on Bryant’s comments when he accused British politicians of “harassing their athlete of the year”.
He said, “Do you know what terrible headlines the British newspapers came up with today?
“Think about the fact that their crowd favorite, tennis player Raducanu, who was their athlete of the year last year, got a Russian coach!”
He ridiculed the response, commenting ironically, “It’s just treason! Betrayal!”
The expert added: “One of their top politicians named Bryant called on Raducanu to change his mind because her decision will be used by Russian propaganda, by Putin’s propaganda.”
JUST INSIDE: Putin on the brink of economic setback as a propaganda stunt to backfire
A guest then replied, “Well, here we are, we’re using it!”
Mr Kornilov continued: “If he hadn’t said that, we wouldn’t be using it!
And now it turns out that if she doesn’t change her mind, she’ll at least have to publicly condemn ‘Putin’s barbaric war’.
“They are bothering her and she will have to get rid of him.