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The U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has recently said in his article (highlight mine):

Our allies have not been deterred by Russia’s usual tactics for avoiding pressure. Sure enough, the Kremlin began pumping out a deluge of lies almost as soon as Sergei and Yulia Skripal had entered intensive care.

So far, my colleagues at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office have identified 21 theories broadcast by the Russian state media, ranging from the sublime (Skripal overdosed because he was addicted to Novichok) to the absurd (America did it to “destabilise the world”) to the offensive (The UK poisoned its own city to spoil the World Cup).

Question: is this an accurate number? Is there a list of these theories published anywhere?

Be Brave Be Like Ukraine
  • 2,329
  • 2
  • 21
  • 30
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    "There are more than 83,000 active and officially registered media outlets in Russia" so it wouldnt be unexpected some would run some theories by that were not "obviously it was Russia " – daniel Mar 29 '18 at 08:24
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    @daniel : but there are much less than 83,000 active *Russian **state** media*. – Evargalo Mar 29 '18 at 09:36
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    Hard to count... however, if you remember how many mutually exclusive theories of MH-17 catastrophe were made up, 21 doesn't seem a huge number. – IMil Mar 29 '18 at 12:54
  • Well, what's a theory? Does something like "a Big Hairy Yeti did this!" count as a theory? – Common Guy Mar 29 '18 at 14:40
  • there were some legitimate news outlets in the US that seriously proposed that a miniature black hole swallowed MH-370 that could count as a theory – DenisS Mar 29 '18 at 15:47
  • Unfortunately, at this current time it seems like the current answer to part two is "no", and thus the answer to part one is unknown. Boris Johnson is the only source for the 21 theories claim. – DenisS Mar 29 '18 at 15:52
  • @Evargalo by state did he mean "state owned", "state aligned" or "any media up to and including facebook, since once a guy who knew a guy at Cambridge Analytica was paid in rubles" – daniel Mar 30 '18 at 01:23

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