MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/. Western media’s reports on Russia’s alleged attempts to influence the US presidential election are crazy rubbish, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
"I have talked to western reporters today. The main question they had was about BuzzFeed’s brilliant report on Russia’s alleged attempts to influence the US presidential election," Zakharova wrote on her Facebook page. "I have fully expressed my attitude to this crazy rubbish, it is hard to stand this inhuman nonsense."
When speaking on "Mikhail Kulagin, a high-ranking official in Russia’s ambassy in Washington", who, according to the BuzzFeed report, was allegedly involved in some election campaign but was recalled to Moscow over concerns that his activities might become public, Zakharova said that no one by that name ever worked at Russia’s embassy.
"Eventually, I came to understand that they referred to Mikhail Kalugin who had been working in the Russian embassy in Washington for the past six years," the spokesperson noted. "As far as I know, he headed the embassy’s economic group, he used to meet with representatives of business and expert circles in Washington and other US cities, delivered lectures and gave interviews concerning Russian-US economic ties."
At the same time, according to Zakharova, in August 2016, Kalugin completed his mission as it had been scheduled. "But the important thing is that many of his American colleagues knew he was going to leave. He arrived in Washington in August 2010 and left in August 2016, like it usually happens," Zakharova stressed.