I wasn’t blaming anyone, I was pointing out that it has become way too normalised for “people familiar with…” and “speaking on condition anonymity…” etc to be pushed as credible sources by news agencies that claim to be “gold standards” of journalism. At best it is lazy, too often the subtext is, “we are making this shit up.”

The point of that story to promote rage about how western sanctions are being evaded

people familiar with Indian companies’ Russian oil purchases said

Smoking gun evidence indeed

To stop the wrong person winning

"Is it possible that Trump is devoid of humanity to this extent? Is that possible?”

Er, yes. I’m afraid it is

Western news: persons familiar with the matter said it so it must be true

too entitled to take the abuse

too entitled to learn from people who are clearly smarter then they are