All news

US reports about Russian ‘attacks’ on diplomats in Vienna ‘unhealthy fantasies’ — diplomat

Earlier, it was reported that at least 20 US diplomats in Vienna experienced "unexplainable health problems" this year

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/. US media report alleging Russia’s involvement in attacks on US diplomats in Vienna using "direct energy" are the fruit of unhealthy fantasies, Russian Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesman Alexander Bikantov said Thursday. 

"It is clear that the Western tabloids’ love for conspiracy theories is ineradicable. But we suggest the quality media avoid this precarious field. Because, next time, they will have to accuse the Russians of solar eclipses or snowfalls. There are no limits to such unhealthy fantasies, and more will come, if Washington propagandists have gotten into them," he said, commenting on reports about the so-called Havana syndrome among US diplomats in Austria.

"The Russophobic propaganda continues to stamp fake news. We are very sorry for our colleagues and we wish them good health. We believe it to be low and morally wrong to initiate anti-Russian speculations by pointing at someone’s bad health. The fiction about these psychic rays is beyond common sense," he added.

Bikantov reminded that such fakes have been around for five years, after US and Canadian diplomats in Havana complained about bad health in 2016.

"However, the Canadians quickly backtracked after the investigation determined that Caribbean cicadas and mosquito repellants were the culprits. But Washington keeps publishing fake news, with the tenacity worthy of a better cause, about the Russian trail, about malicious actions against their diplomats - from sonic to radio and energy waves," the diplomat said.

Earlier, The New Yorker reported that at least 20 US diplomats in Vienna experienced "unexplainable health problems" this year. The cited sources speculated that the diplomats, intelligence officers and other state officials could have been subjected to attacks by direct energy devices. CIA Director William Burns noted that, while he does not rule out Russia’s connection to the "Havana syndrome," he would rather refrain from jumping to any conclusions.