State Department is worried about the ambassador
INTERFAX.RU - The US is concerned about the security of its ambassador in Moscow, who complains about the inappropriate attention of journalists to his person. In Smolensk Square, they received an appropriate appeal, but when they first looked, they did not see anything terrible: the journalists asked questions.Recall that last week the NTV channel posted a story on its website, where the US ambassador to Moscow, Michael McFaul, spoke with several young people who introduced themselves as journalists. Within a few minutes, they tried to get him to understand what issues he was going to discuss with human rights activist Lev Ponomarev. “It’s as if I’m in a wild country. It’sn’t normal. It’s not like this in England, Germany, China, only here and only with you,” said McFaul. In his opinion, journalists violate the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. "Are you not ashamed to do this? It offends your country, do you understand that?" - said the American diplomat.
The ambassador called this attitude impolite. Nevertheless, the young people continued to ask McFaul questions. The diplomat tried to explain to them that his meetings with representatives of civil society were normal. "This is normal. This is called diplomatic work," he stressed. The journalists refused to answer McFaul's repeated questions about how they had learned that he was going to meet with Ponomarev. The ambassador also expressed bewilderment because wherever he was, he was followed by correspondents of the NTV television company. "Wherever I go, NTV is already there. I wonder who gives them my schedule?" - he tweeted.
The press service of NTV, in response to a request from Interfax, commented on the placement of this video on the site: “At first we viewed this shooting as a private video. But after reading the comment by Lev Ponomarev, we appreciated the scale of the event. Therefore, we decided to publish these shots on our website ". Earlier, Ponomarev told Interfax that unknown persons tried to arrange a provocation on March 29 during a visit to the United States Ambassador’s human rights organization. “I consider this a provocation. An atmosphere of some sort of persecution is created,” he said.
The United States has expressed concern to the Russian side about the ambassador, US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. "After his arrival (to Moscow - IF), a number of incidents occurred that caused our security concerns," the State Department spokesman said. Without going into details, he made it clear that the concern is related to anti-American attacks on the ambassador to Russia. In addition, the American side is concerned that the ambassador is being monitored and tapped on the phone, Toner said. Answering the question whether there was any reaction from the Russian side, the representative of the State Department said: "No. I have no details as to what reaction they had."
The Russian Foreign Ministry received an appeal from the American side and is checking it, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with Interfax on Monday. “We really have the official appeal of the US embassy at the moment,” Ryabkov said. “We’re not the first time we are faced with a situation where the US embassy in Moscow makes complaints about how the security of American diplomats working in Moscow is ensured and on some other aspects related to the security of the US embassy. "
“For each such appeal, including the appeal that came to us last week, thorough checks are carried out, after which we officially inform the American side of the results. As a rule, the question is settled,” Ryabkov said. “I would like to draw attention, that if we compare the materials that are in the public domain with the content of the comment that was released in Washington, then not everything fits in with one another because it is well seen in the public domain that the NTV film crew has no obstacles e mended and did not try to repair the ambassador. He asked questions. "
“But I repeat that this replica of mine is not the final approved and completed position of the Russian side. We will officially react after some time when we will work in response to the American appeal, and do it through diplomatic channels,” the deputy foreign minister stressed. .
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