MOSCOW, September 14. /TASS/. The publication of two articles in four days by Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine on the so-called Havana syndrome among the staff of the US Embassy in Berlin creates a negative aura around Russia and harms relations between Moscow and Berlin, according to a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry dedicated to the anti-Russian campaign in German media outlets made public on Tuesday.

The Russian diplomatic agency noted two articles by Der Spiegel on possible attacks using sonic weapons on the US embassy staffers in Berlin. "According to Der Spiegel journalists who were assisted by known falsifiers Bellingcat, our country is allegedly implementing some secret program of a remote impact using dangerous waves (microwaves, micro- and radio emission) on targeted recipients via mobile devices. One can guess that the targeted recipients are the employees of the US Embassy in Germany, in charge of Russian affairs at that, including Russian-German cooperation on gas and cybersecurity," the statement said.

"The absurdity of accusations directed at us does not perturb the articles’ authors at all. They attempt to impose absolutely impossible versions on readers that Russian intelligence services somehow delivered the equipment to Germany, a NATO country, and perform the irradiation of US diplomats there. The authors of the pseudo-investigation leave the question ‘why’ unanswered. Any proof of Russia’s involvement in the incidents is also absent," the Foreign Ministry emphasized. "Without any doubt, here we are talking about another link in the chain of coordinated actions by the Western media community, acting in the interests of US authorities on creating a negative aura around Russia and causing additional harm to the Russian-German relations."

The ministry urged to turn to the agency’s previous statements on the "Havana syndrome" among American diplomats.

About "Havana syndrome"

Washington’s previous administration claimed that as a result of some external means which the US media dubbed "acoustic attacks," over 40 US diplomats have been affected in Havana since November 2016. The US authorities pinned the blame for these incidents on Cuba. Havana repeatedly denied its involvement in the incidents with the US diplomats. In October 2017, Cuban experts also stated that the US could have confused the chirping of crickets or cicadas with the "acoustic attacks."

In 2017, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the attempts to see Moscow’s interest in such incidents in Cuba absurd.