Russian FSB attacks U.S. diplomat outside Moscow embassy – Washington Post


In the early morning of June 6, a uniformed Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) guard attacked and beat up a U.S. diplomat who was trying to enter the the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, The Washington Post reports with reference to four U.S. officials.

According to the WP journalist Josh Rogin, the previously unreported attack occurred just steps from the entrance to the U.S. Embassy complex. The diplomat suffered a broken shoulder, among other injuries, but then flown out of Russia to receive urgent medical attention, the author states.

The State Department in Washington called in Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to complain about the incident.

The motive for the attack remains unclear, Josh Rogin says. Spokesmen for the both the State Department and the CIA declined to make a comment on the incident or whether or not the diplomat was in fact an undercover U.S. spy.

If the U.S. diplomat attacked on June 6 was not a spy, U.S. officials have no other explanation for why the FSB guard was trying to stop him from entering the embassy, the journalist sums up.

In his recent investigation into the issue, Josh Rogin states that Russia keeps harrassing U.S. diplomats all over Europe saying that such acts ‘range from the weird to the downright scary’.

At the same time, he writes that many of the recent acts of intimidation by Russian security services have crossed the line into apparent criminality:

“… Russian intruders had broken into their homes late at night, only to rearrange the furniture or turn on all the lights and televisions, and then leave. One diplomat reported that an intruder had defecated on his living room carpet.”

Giving the reason for the U.S. poor response to such barbaric behaviour, the investigative journalist quotes the members of Congress involved in diplomacy with Europe who put it down to Obama administration’s attempt to project a veneer of positive U.S.-Russian relations that ‘doesn’t really exist’.

Belsat.eu, following the Washington Post

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