MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. The recently leaked Pentagon documents don’t contain any truly classified information that could interest Moscow, Russian Special Presidential Representative for Environmental Protection, Ecology and Transport Sergey Ivanov said on Monday.
"The documents were leaked through the media, which makes me somewhat skeptical. Until recently, I really thought that it was all fake. First, because of the way the leak took place, and second, which is the most important thing, because in all of the documents, I did not see any truly classified information that would be of great interest to Russia and be of actual use," he told the Rossiya-24 TV channel.
"Such wide access to documents marked ‘secret’" and their subsequent publication "is a headache and a problem for the Americans," Ivanov added.
Earlier, US media outlets reported that the Pentagon and the US Department of Justice had launched a probe into the leak of secret documents about Washington and NATO’s plans to train Ukrainian soldiers ahead of a counteroffensive. Numerous documents on the schedules of arms supplies and the strength of forces were leaked to social networks, including Twitter and Telegram. The New York Times reported on April 7 that another batch of secret American documents related to Ukraine had appeared on the Internet. According to the newspaper, documents pertaining to the Middle East and China were also leaked.
According to CNN, Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard arrested in the leak case, was engaged in running a special communications network used for the distribution of classified documents. Teixeira is charged with unauthorized removal of classified and defense information, as well as with unauthorized retention and transmission of defense information. The first charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, while on the second charge, Teixeira may face ten years behind bars.