© Anton novoderezhkin/TASS
MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/. The situation around the contacts of the Ambassador of Russia in the USA Sergey Kislyak resembles a “witch hunt”. This was stated by Russian foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“Ambassadors are appointed for the sake of maintaining relations with the state concerned. Relations are maintained in the form of meetings, conversations, contacts with official representatives of the Executive government and with parliamentarians, public figures, non-governmental organizations, the Minister said. – This practice no one ever challenged”.
“I can only refer to a quote, which today issued a media: all this is very similar to a witch hunt or at the time of McCarthyism, which, we thought, for a long time in the US as in a civilized country has passed”, – said Lavrov. “What is imputed to Ambassador Kislyak and his companions… is Imputed to the fact that our Ambassador talked to the American politicians who were in opposition to the administration of (Barack) Obama. That’s the essence of these charges, to be honest,” said the Minister of foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
“We are not going to APE. If the same principle were applied to the activities of the Ambassador (USA John) Tefft in Russia and his contacts, it would be a very “funny” picture”, – said Lavrov.
Earlier, The Washington Post reported that in July and September 2016, the current Minister of justice Jeff sessions, who was then the Senator from Alabama, met twice with Kislyak. However, at the hearings on his confirmation to head the justice Ministry sessions, under oath, was not reported to the senators who were interested in the links campaign headquarters trump with officials of the Russian Federation. After that, the Democratic party has demanded his resignation.