Moscow: Bellingcat works for secret services

moscow - The citizen research team Bellingcat acts as a front for Western intelligence services to manipulate public opinion. That accusation comes from the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in an interview with Euronews.

Bellingcat has played a leading role in identifying the two men accused of poisoning ex-spy Sergej Skripal and his daughter in Britain. Earlier, the citizen journalism network published studies that linked Russia to the collapse of flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine and suspected chemical attacks in Syria.

'It is no secret to anyone, Western journalists openly state that Bellingcat is associated with special services,' Lavrov said. 'They leak information through it to have some effect on public opinion,' he said.

Moscow continues to deny that it was responsible for the attack with the nerve gas novitsjok against the Skripals earlier this year.