The State Department condemned Russian security services Friday for an attack on an American diplomat, the latest incident in what U.S. officials said is increasing intimidation of its personnel.
The U.S. diplomat “was attacked by a Russian policeman” while attempting to enter the American embassy last month in Moscow, State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters, speaking just days after a video of the altercation was broadcasat on Russian TV.
“The action was unprovoked and endangered the safety of our employee,” he added.
Kirby said that Russian officials’ claims that the policeman was attempting to protect the embassy were “simply untrue.”
He called this a “very graphic and violent example” of two years of “increased harassment” of U.S. diplomats in Russia.
He noted that Washington had initially sought to handle the affair via direct government-to-government channels but said that Russian officials’ public allegations compelled the U.S. to make the rebuke public.
He described Russian behavior as “unprovoked and unnecessary.”
“There’s no need for this when there’s so many more important things for us to be working on with Russia,” he added.
Washington had delivered high-level complaints to Moscow about accusations of increasing intimidation of American diplomats in Russia, the State Department said in June.
Secretary of State John Kerry last discussed the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 24, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters last month.
“We see an increase and we take it seriously,” she said.
Other Western embassies had reported the same behavior toward their diplomats stationed in Moscow, Trudeau added.
Moscow, however, has charged that Washington has also engaged in problematic behavior.
In June, the Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow has “felt a significant increase in pressure on the Russian Embassy and consulates general of our country in the United States.”
According to Zakharova, staff members of Russia’s consulate missions abroad “regularly become the objects of provocations by the American secret services, face obstacles in making official contacts and other restrictions,” including travel.
Kirby dismissed the Russian complaints about their U.S.-based diplomats receiving similar treatment, calling the claims “without foundation.”
