imageMOSCOW: Russia has opened a television channel in Britain and launched a new foreign news service called Sputnik as it pulls out all the stops to promote its "alternative" voice abroad, while at home it cracks down on opposition media.

At the lavish launch of Sputnik last week, its chief Dmitry Kiselyov, who has famously said Russia was the only country capable of turning the United States into "radioactive ash", said the new service aims to fight "aggressive propaganda that is now being fed to the world".

"Sputnik tells the untold" is the slogan of the news service at Sputniknews.com, named after the first Soviet satellite, which will put out news in 30 languages from 2015.

One of the first articles posted on the site sets the tone, saying: "NATO has repeatedly accused Moscow of its involvement in the Ukrainian crisis, including allegations that Russia has sent tanks and troops to the conflict zone.

"However, none of the claims have been supported with any evidence."

This week, Sputnik published an article on the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev where he is quoted as calling US President Barack Obama a "lame duck".

Another article is headlined: "NATO Prefers to Ignore Russian Efforts to StabilizeSituation in Ukraine."

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2014

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