MOSCOW, October 28 /TASS/. The Russian Foreign Ministry has denied allegations that U.S embassy staff in Moscow is being harassed and comes under psychological pressure. “These reports are unreal and groundless,” the Russian Foreign Ministry press and information department said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it believed the allegations could have been cooked up at the suggestion of the U.S. State Department.
“The voiced complaints are below the level of cheap spy detective stories. They are brought down to trivial fantasies about hacked personal e-mail, slashed tires and mysterious burst-ins,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said expressing its outrage with remarks of the U.S. State Department spokesperson who said that unlike the Russians the Americans were treating Russian diplomats with respect and dignity.
“We do not think that professional aspects of diplomatic activity and risks linked to it should be discussed in public. These risks are particularly high in the United States in view of the scope and scale of secret operations carried out by American security services that are patronizing the Russian diplomats,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
“But if Washington has launched a ‘public’ discussion, we also have what to say,” the Ministry went on to say.
“For example, the head and employees of the Russian Scientific and Cultural Center in Washington are being intentionally persecuted. They are receiving continuous telephone calls. Americans are demonstrably spying on them and are making unceremonious attempts to impose a conversation.
Besides, the United States is making regular attempts to recruit our diplomats by means of gross provocations involving the use of illegally obtained personal data, including information on the health of family members,” the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed.
“We can remember the recent incident involving the use of force not only against the employees of our embassy in the United States but also against their wives who were detained, handcuffed and questioned. Despite our numerous appeals, the American side did not present any apologies,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
It drew attention to the fact that American diplomats in Moscow “were not models of orderliness” and observation of the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations in part concerning respect for the laws and regulations of the country of sojourn.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, U.S. embassy employees have made about 20 violations of road traffic rules since the start of 2014 during rides in Moscow and trips to other Russian cities. Last New Year night, a U.S. embassy employee slammed into cars parked in the street near the embassy compound.
“The Russian Foreign Ministry has sent several notes /to the U.S. embassy/ demanding to take disciplinary measures against employees who break road traffic rules. All of them, however, were left unanswered,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
“We advise our colleagues from the State Department not to add more negative sentiment to the current gloomy background in the development of our relations. This is not the way to solve problems; it is the way to make them worse,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.