The Russian Foreign Ministry has said the manner in which the UK government executed the arrest of WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange is demeaning to human dignity, and his long-running persecution is a blow to journalism.

Commenting on the arrest and detention of the publisher in the UK on Thursday, the ministry’s spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, condemned the British authorities for manhandling the 47-year-old Assange as he was being hauled out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

“The manner in which this operation was executed leaves a total impression of a flagrant and unconcealed neglect for the human dignity of the arrestee,” she said, adding that Moscow hopes all of Assange’s rights would be respected.

Zakharova pointed out that before his eventual arrest by the UK police, Assange had to endure years of persecution while forced to live in “unbearable conditions” at the embassy.

Assange has been a de facto prisoner at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012, when he was granted asylum by then-president Rafael Correa. Correa’s former ally and successor, Lenin Moreno, has distanced himself from the leftist cause and taken on a more pro-American stance, repeatedly calling Assange a “nuisance” that he would like to get rid of.

During Moreno’s time in office, Ecuador placed various restrictions on Assange, cutting off his internet access and leaving him virtually incommunicado since March last year. Only his lawyers were allowed to visit him. In the meantime, it was reported that Assange’s health has been rapidly deteriorating since he was afraid of going to hospital out of fear of being arrested and extradited to the US.

“The persecution and harassment, the creation of inhumane conditions for his existence – this is sending freedom of speech and the right to spread information into oblivion. This is a blow to the rights of journalists. There can be no other assessment,” Zakharova said.

It has been speculated that the last drop that prompted Moreno to strip Assange of his protection and revoke his Ecuadorian citizenship was the release of documents that linked Moreno to a corruption case in Ecuador. The revelations were attributed to WikiLeaks, although the whistleblowing site denied involvement.

Assange has been held in custody for skipping bail in 2012 over a rape charge in Sweden that has since been dropped as well as in connection with the computer-hacking conspiracy charge in the US. Washington has until June 12 to justify his extradition to the US, where it is feared he might face charges for much more serious crimes that can land him in jail for up to 45 years.

Zakharova echoed the statement by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who said earlier that Moscow hopes there would be no infringement on Assange’s rights.

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Four people have been arrested and 40 questioned following a daring, multimillion-euro daylight heist on the runway at Tirana airport, in which one gang member was killed during a shootout with Albanian police.

An armed gang dressed in military fatigues stormed the runway at Tirana’s Mother Teresa Airport Tuesday and threatened baggage handlers before engaging in a firefight and subsequent high-speed chase with police. One gunman, identified as Admir Murataj, died during the exchange. He had been a wanted man since a 2013 prison break in Greece.  

Initial reports suggest €2.5 million ($2.8 million) was stolen but local media are claiming the figure could be as high as €10 million ($11mn). The money was due to be shipped via the Austria Airlines plane to Vienna as Albania’s central bank does not accept such large hard currency deposits from foreign banks operating in the country.

Police reportedly found the burned-out remains of three vehicles used in the heist at three separate locations. While passengers were on board the aircraft at the time of the robbery, no injuries were reported and the plane eventually took off after a three-hour delay.

“Boarding had just taken place. There was never any danger for crew and passengers,” Austrian Airlines spokesperson Tanja Gruber said in a statement.

Defense minister Olta Xhacka ordered a police and military security perimeter established around the airport while investigations are carried out, saying her government could “no longer allow the security of citizens and the country’s image to suffer” due to “persistent irresponsibility” in the airport’s security.

Hong Kong-based China Everbright runs the airport and has received criticism from Albanian MPs including Interior minister Sander Lleshaj who said that “security mechanisms, which are under the concessionary’s responsibility, have not functioned.”

“The airport does not belong to the Chinese. It belongs to all Albanians, it is part of Albania’s territory and by law it is protected by the state police,” China Everbright said in a statement

As a precautionary measure, cash transfers of this kind have been suspended between Tirana and Vienna for the time being.

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Israel’s private spacecraft Beresheet crashed into the Moon on Thursday after being hit with problems during descent, denying the Jewish state a place in the elite club of nations that mastered a lunar landing.

“Small country, big dreams,” the engraving on the spacecraft’s body read, but those dreams weren’t destined to come true.

Beresheet’s engine stopped working around 10 kilometers from the surface, with the vehicle crashing into the Moon at a speed of over 130 meters per second.

The blunder occurred on a live feed in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara, who arrived at the control center for the occasion.

However, the space explorers didn’t seem shaken by the setback as they all chanted a solemn song to show that getting so close to the goal was an achievement in itself.

Netanyahu has already promised that an Israeli spacecraft will be back to the Moon in the next two or three years.

Beresheet, which is Hebrew for the biblical phrase “in the beginning,” could have also become the first private spacecraft to land on the Moon. It was constructed by Israeli nonprofit space venture SpaceIL and state-owned defense contractor Israel Aerospace Industries. The $100 million needed for the ambitious project came from private investors.

Only Russia, the US, and China have so far managed to perform controlled “soft” landings on the lunar surface.

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Journalists and whistleblowers have weighed in on the indictment brought by the US against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, calling the current password-cracking charge “weak,” but setting a dangerous precedent for press freedom.

A statement from the Department of Justice on Wednesday said Assange had been charged for engaging in a conspiracy to crack a password on a Department of Defense computer in order to release classified information. If found guilty, he could face up to five years in prison.

READ MORE: Every charge against Julian Assange, explained

Fellow whistleblower and former CIA employee Edward Snowden said on Twitter that the “weakness of the US charge against Assange is shocking” in that the allegation that Assange and Manning had “tried” to crack the password had been public knowledge for “nearly a decade,” and that the Obama administration’s DOJ had concluded that prosecuting Assange would pose a threat to press freedom.

US media reported on the attempt in 2011. It is not known whether Manning and Assange actually managed to crack the password in question, but the wording of the DOJ statement could suggest that their attempts were unsuccessful.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald also commented on the Obama-era decision, saying that Democrats who have spent two years “feigning concerns over press freedom” in relation to the Trump administration’s attacks on journalists, but who now support the Donald Trump DOJ’s indictment of Assange were “beneath contempt.”

Internet freedom activist Kim Dotcom also weighed in on the potential five-year prison sentence for trying to crack a password. “Is it still April Fool’s Day?” he tweeted, with the hashtag #FreeJulian.

In a further tweet, Dotcom said that the sentence was possibly a “tactic” to tempt Assange to consider swift extradition, but that more and heavier charges likely awaited. “DOJ may have a superseding indictment with more charges ready on arrival. I can tell you from experience DOJ is full of liars and tricksters,” he wrote.

Editor of the White House Watch website Dan Froomkin tweeted advice to journalists at mainstream news organizations, saying they should acknowledge that the indictment was a “ridiculous stretch” and was in relation to “the noblest of his leaks,” making it a “chilling” moment for journalism.

The indictment relates to 2010 releases of classified information on US war crimes in Iraq, including footage of a US Apache helicopter, which opened fire killing 12 people, including two Reuters reporters.

Ewen MacAskill, a defense and security correspondent for the Guardian, said that it would set a “terrible precedent” if a journalist or publisher could end up in a US jail for publishing Iraq war logs and US State Department cables.

Others, including former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou and Transparency Ireland founder John Devitt, also weighed in, saying that a fair trial for Assange in the US was nearly “impossible” to imagine.

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The prosecution – and persecution – of Julian Assange is meant to silence others who would speak out against abuses of power, WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson and Assange lawyer Jennifer Robinson say, promising to fight back.

“This is a precedent… that effectively means that any journalist or media organization anywhere in the world can be extradited and prosecuted for having published truthful info about the United States, and that is, as a matter of principle, wrong and ought to be resisted. And we will be fighting it,” Robinson told RT.

“The message is not to Julian Assange. The message is to journalists all over the world that they should not step in the way of a superpower who wants to have all the power,” Hrafnsson agreed. While he is concerned about the “chilling effect” on journalists who now “have to face the possibility of being persecuted and thrown into a prison plane to be put on trial in the US,” he remains confident that “there will always be brave people to step forward and see the importance of getting information out.”

And WikiLeaks has set its own precedent, Hrafnsson pointed out. The Iraq and Afghanistan war leaks – “the largest leak in military history” – followed by the Cablegate release of State Department communications – “the largest leak in diplomatic history” – set a standard for those who came later, he said, citing the Panama Papers and Edward Snowden’s leaks as publications inspired by the WikiLeaks model.

Whatever attacks are mounted against Assange, “the work of WikiLeaks will continue,” Hrafnsson said. “It is not going anywhere.”

“He will take on the fight and fight for victory – and we will help him out.”

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Former MI5 agent and whistleblower Annie Machon called the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange “absolutely disgusting,” and an “egregious violation” of his rights.

Assange was dragged by British police from the Ecuadorian embassy in London on Thursday morning after his asylum right was axed. The arrest comes a day after WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson detailed an extensive spying campaign against Assange, and two weeks after WikiLeaks announced a corruption investigation against Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno.

“It’s almost like tit-for-tat,” Machon told RT. “This is an egregious violation of so many rights under international law.”

“It has been stated by the UN that his rights were being infringed,” she continued. “And then you have him being spied on all the time, including conversations with his lawyers which are supposed to be legally privileged, and conversations with his doctors, again supposed to be privileged.”

Meanwhile, former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa called his successor “the greatest traitor in Ecuadorian and Latin American history” for allowing British police to enter the country’s embassy and arrest Assange. Machon told RT that she hopes to hear similar condemnations from world leaders in the coming hours and days.

“We’ve seen time and time again how easy it is for the mainstream media to be controlled and manipulated from behind the scenes by the intelligence agencies and by governments,” she said.

“And that is precisely the model that Julian Assange tried to break. And he did it courageously and he did it knowing full well what he’d be facing.”

“For Britain and Ecuador, probably to just hand him over to the States for some incredibly harsh non-justice, is I think, absolutely disgusting.”

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Julian Assange has pleaded not guilty to failing to surrender to bail, in a court appearance following his arrest. The WikiLeaks founder was arrested by British police for the bail breach, and following a US extradition request.

Assange was charged with failing to surrender to custody in 2012, when he faced extradition to Sweden as part of a sexual assault investigation. Swedish authorities dropped the charges, but Assange was still arrested for breaching the conditions of his original bail.

Assange had remained under de-facto house arrest in the Ecuadorian embassy since, fearing extradition to the United States. A US indictment alleges that Assange engaged in “conspiracy” with US Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning in 2010, for his role in publishing a tranche of classified US military documents, some detailing alleged war crimes.

Although a secret warrant for his extradition was revealed last year, the US Justice Department officially charged Assange with conspiracy on Thursday. The WikiLeaks head is charged with “conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified U.S. government computer.”

Washington’s extradition request was central to Assange’s arrest, British Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed on Thursday. May welcomed Assange’s capture, declaring “no one is above the law.”

Emerging from the Embassy clutching a copy of Gore Vidal’s ‘The History of the National Security State,’ a frail and unkempt Assange nevertheless flashed reporters a thumbs-up as he was driven to Westminster Magistrates Court in a police van.

Should Assange be extradited to the US, he faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison. However, that sentence could increase significantly should additional charges of espionage be tacked on.

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#Romanovs100 won two golds for “Best Original Music” & “Best Digital Special event,” silver in “Camerawork” and “Art Direction,” and bronze in “Video Art & Experimental Film” for a VR animated music video this week.

The award-winning history project about Russia’s last reigning royal family, the Romanovs, has been making headlines this past month as it gathers prestigious awards worldwide.

Just last week it was announced that #Romanovs100 was in the finals of the world’s oldest awards for design, marketing and advertising – the ADC Awards. The project is also shortlisted for a New York Festivals Advertising award where finalists will be announced on April 22nd.

Founded in 2005, New York Festivals TV & Film Awards honours content in all lengths and forms from over 50 countries. Embracing all aspects of the television and film industries, categories mirror today’s global trends and encourage the next generation of storytellers and talent.

#Romanovs100 is currently also up for a Webby in the “Best photography and graphics” category. With an ongoing open vote, you can help the digital photo-narrative make history by voting HERE. So far, the project holds 11 awards, including Clio Entertainment, The Drum Social Buzz, and PromaxBDA accolades.

RT won four more categories: RT France’s promo for “World Chessboard” took silver in “Graphic Design”, while the promo for the news and analysis program “El Zoom” on RT Spanish took bronze.

Also taking home bronze, were RT’s promo for the World Cup, featuring José Mourinho and Russian ballerinas and athletes, and the Pulitzer-prize winning RT America host, Chris Hedges, for “Best Interview”.

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Video shows whistleblower and Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange being carried out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London by force, before being shoved into a police vehicle.

In exclusive footage from RT’s Ruptly video agency, a disheveled Assange complete with full white beard is seen being carried out of the building by several men holding him by the limbs. 

Assange can be heard shouting “UK…must resist…” before his words are muffled as he is forced into a police vehicle. He will now be taken to Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

Clutched in his hands was a copy of American intellectual Gore Vidal’s book “The History of The National Security State,” which includes the author’s criticisms of the United States’ security apparatus.

The whistleblower had been living in the embassy for the last seven years protected by political asylum, which was dropped earlier in the day by Ecuador.

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Renegade internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom has condemned the arrest of Julian Assange as a modern-day “inquisition,” and said the WikiLeaks founder’s “persecution and arrest” will make him “a hero for the ages.”

“Witch hunts, book burnings and the Inquisition are back,” Dotcom tweeted on Thursday, hours after Assange was hauled out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London by British police.

“The persecution and arrest of Julian Assange for publishing the truth returns us to the darkest times in human history,” the internet icon continued. “This attempt to keep us from the truth will turn Julian Assange into a hero for the ages.”

According to Assange’s lawyer Jen Robinson, his arrest was made in relation to an extradition request from the United States. Assange is wanted on charges of conspiracy, together with US Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning, Robinson elaborated.

The truth published by WikiLeaks has been particularly embarrassing for Washington. In 2010, the outlet published classified US military footage leaked by Manning, which showed a US Apache gunship mowing down 12 people, including two Reuters staff.

Dotcom’s own activities have brought the weight of the US government down on him before. As founder of the now-defunct file-hosting service Megaupload, the German-born entrepreneur is still locked into an extradition battle with Washington. He is currently in New Zealand, and has claimed that US authorities are pursuing a vendetta against him on behalf of politically-influential Hollywood studios.

Dotcom is a privacy activist and prominent critic of government surveillance. He has accused former President Barack Obama of colluding with US intelligence agencies and tech companies to dramatically expand digital spying.

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