Russia’s Foreign Ministry has claimed that reports of an American diplomat being assaulted by Russian law enforcement are “made up,” the Meduza news website reported Thursday.
The Washington Post newspaper published a report Wednesday that a security guard in the uniform of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) had assaulted an American diplomat outside the U.S. embassy in Moscow, breaking the man’s shoulder.
Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokesperson responded to the report in an interview published Thursday on the ministry’s website.
“A suspicious person wearing a hat pulled down low over his face got out of a taxi and rushed toward the entrance. The policeman on duty wished to check the man’s documents but the unknown man hit him in the face with his elbow. In the ensuing scuffle the man pushed the policeman away and hid himself in the embassy,” said Zakharova.
Zakharova said that the American diplomat was a CIA agent returning from a mission and whose diplomatic passport was nothing but a cover.
“The broken shoulder is just from the realm of fantasy,” she said.
“We again regret that Washington continually aims to ruin relations with provocation and disinformation.”
The Washington Post has previously reported systematic intimidation of U.S. diplomatic staff by Russia’s security forces.
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