KIRUNA (Sweden), May 15 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had not discussed the “spy” issue at a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry.
“We have not discussed this issue,” Lavrov said. “John Kerry did not raise it··, and I also thought it would be odd to talk about it because everything has already become public knowledge.”
“In my opinion, everything is clear to everyone,” the Russian foreign minister said.
According to earlier reports, on the night from May 13 to 14 counter-intelligence agencies of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) detained during an attempt to recruit an officer of a Russian security service staff member of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Ryan Christopher Fogle who worked undercover on the post of third secretary of the political department of the US Embassy in Moscow. The letter with instructions confiscated from the detained CIA agent offered up to 1 million US dollars per year for information. The detainee was taken to the FSB reception office and after the necessary formal procedures was handed over to the US Embassy officials.
Russia declared the detained CIS agent “persona non grata” and demanded his quick departure home.
At the same time, the US Department of State does not tend to draw far-reaching conclusions concerning the detention of a staff member of the American Embassy in Moscow. US State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell, answering the question whether the spy scandal could damage the RF-US bilateral relations, which have recently started to improve, told reporters in Washington that he would rather not make far-reaching conclusions from a single incident. “I’m not sure I would read too much into one incident one way or another,” Ventrell said. He confirmed that an embassy officer had been briefly detained, but declined further comment.