UK Anti-War Group Reject Call to Protest at Russian Embassy

After U.K.’s conservative Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called on the U.K. anti-war group, the Stop the War coalition, to stage protests outside the Russian embassy in response to bombings in Aleppo, the group responded by rejecting the call.

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They believe that there is as much reason to demonstrate outside the U.S. Embassy as the Russian one, Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman said.

“People are at complete liberty to protest outside not only the Russian Embassy, but all the other intervening, participating powers, and there are a number of them,” he said.

He further said that Corbyn condemned the Russian bombing “as he has condemned the intervention by all outside forces in the Syrian civil war,” adding that “the focus on Russian atrocities in Syria sometimes diverts attention from other atrocities that are taking place."

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“Independent assessments are that there have been very large-scale civilian casualties as a result of the US-led coalition bombing. There are several cases of large numbers of deaths in single attacks, and there hasn’t been as much focus on those casualties.”

The coalition said that protesting outside the Russian embassy would increase the “hysteria and jingoism” that is being perpetuated by politicians and media. Chris Nineham, the vice-chair of the campaign group, voiced that the government has been fuelling this blatant anti-Russian sentiment in order to justify the escalation of British military intervention. He added that the organization's focus is “on what our government is doing”, referring to the UK government.

“There’s a very good reason for this, because we can make a difference to what Britain does, we can make a difference to what our allies do to a certain extent and we have done,” Nineham told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

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Johnson last month angered Russia by claiming it is guilty of war crimes in Syria. On Wednesday, the Russian defence ministry, said these accusations and others like it contribute to “Russophobic hysteria”.