MOSCOW, November 25. /TASS/. Moscow has no relation to any incidents of the so-called Havana Syndrome, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday, commenting on The Washington Post’s claims that during his visit to Moscow, CIA Director William Burns warned Russia of ‘consequences,’ if it was complicit in such incidents.
The reporters inquired if the issue of the Havana Syndrome was raised during the visit by the CIA chief to Moscow in early November and if he raised it during his talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"This issue was not raised in any way with Burns’s political interlocutors here in Moscow and it was not touched upon with the head of state. As for the content of Burns’s talk with his counterparts in the intelligence services, I have nothing to say on this matter as this is non-public information," Peskov said, replying to a corresponding question.
"What we can utterly reject on this score relates to any hints, presumptions or claims of Russia’s alleged complicity in these cases. We have nothing to do with that," the Kremlin spokesman stressed.
The Washington Post earlier reported, citing US officials that during his visit to the Russian capital on November 2-3, the head of the CIA delivered a confidential warning to Russia’s top intelligence services that they would face ‘consequences,’ if they "are behind the string of mysterious health incidents known as ‘Havana Syndrome’ afflicting U.S. diplomats and spies around the world."
As the paper claimed, Burns raised this issue with the leadership of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and the country’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). As the paper’s sources specified, the CIA chief’s warning did not assign any blame to Russia "for what US officials are calling ‘anomalous health incidents.’"