Russia Stresses on Not Intervening in Indonesia`s Election

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Russian Embassy in Jakarta has stressed that Russia does not intervene in the Indonesian presidential election.

The embassy was responding to a statement by incumbent presidential candidate Joko Widodo (Jokowi) in Solo, Central Java, on Sunday that the one using a foreign consultant in politics tended to not think of the impact on the people, one of them being through the theory of Russian propaganda.

On its official twitter account @RusEmbJakarta on Monday, the embassy said the term "Russian propaganda" was engineered in the United States in 2016 within the framework of the presidential election campaign.

According to the Russian government, the term was by no means based on reality.

"We underline that the principal position of Russia is not to intervene in the internal affairs and electoral processes of other countries, including Indonesia, which is our close friend and important partner," the embassy noted in its tweet.

The embassy closed a series of the tweets by uploading the photo of President Vladimir Putin shaking hands with President Jokowi during the ASEAN-Russia Summit held in Singapore in November 2018.

Read also: Russian Amb. Rebuffs Jokowi's Statement on Russian Propaganda

In his speech at the Colomadu sugar mill, west of Solo, the incumbent presidential candidate stated that the theory of Russian propaganda was made by spreading as many hoaxes as possible to raise doubts among the public.

The allegation that Russia was involved in one of the presidential candidates` campaign team surfaced when presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto delivered his national speech on January 14, 2019.

Since then, a video of Prabowo walking with a foreigner, believed to be US political consultant Rob Allyn, Russian Vice Ambassador to Indonesia and Russian businessmen Ariel Israilov has gone viral.

The Russian embassy denied that the person in the video was their vice ambassador to Indonesia.

ANTARA