Diplomat blasts CNN’s media blitz against Russia's US envoy

MOSCOW, May 25. /TASS/. CNN’s ongoing smear campaign against Russia’s Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak is part of a deliberate editorial policy by the TV channel, Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

"Lately, it has become a tradition and a trend for people working at the CNN TV channel - correspondents, anchors and analysts - to accuse Russia’s Ambassador to the US Mr. Kislyak of completely absurd steps," Zakharova told reporters.

The US TV channel has labelled the ambassador one of Russia’s tops spies and spy-recruiters, she said. These assessments were allegedly made by former and current US officials.

"Certainly, Russia’s position was not given in this context at all," the diplomat noted.

Zakharova stressed that CNN’s actions were aimed at "discrediting the activity of the chief of Russia’s diplomatic mission" and "are the result of a deliberate editorial policy of the TV channel’s leadership."

"As our contacts [with CNN] show, these are not the results of journalistic investigations, this is not a journalistic improvisation or professionalism of journalists - this is deliberate policy, which is imposed on journalists from the top," she said.

"Whether it [editorial policy] is formed inside the TV channel or it is imposed on the TV channel also from the top - this may be an issue for your journalistic investigation. There is such an impression that someone in the current political establishment in Washington just seems to dislike the idea of a possible improvement of relations between our countries," she said.