MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) - Moscow is adjusting its approaches to Russian-U.S. relations in light of the official U.S. reaction to the incident involving current and former Russian diplomats in New York and Washington, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vitaly Churkin said.
"Surely, we cannot just pass by and pretend that nothing has happened after the provocation that they [the U.S.] committed in relation to our diplomats in New York by noisily accusing them God knows of what," Churkin said on Rossiya-24 news TV channel on Friday.
"This is certainly very unpleasant," Churkin said. "We are appropriately adjusting our behavior with our U.S. counterparts so that they don't think they can do whatever they want and preserve our cooperation," he said.
It was reported in the media earlier that U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara had accused dozens of Russian diplomats and their spouses of participating in a nine-year scheme that allegedly bilked the U.S. government of more than $1.5 million in Medicaid benefits.
The FBI reported that 49 Russians, including 25 current and former employees of the Russian Consulate General in New York, the Russian Mission to the UN, and the Russian Trade Mission, and 24 of their spouses, were charged in the case.
The U.S. prosecution officials were alerted by an unexpectedly large number of applications for Medicaid benefits filed by employees of Russian diplomatic missions in New York. U.S. investigators reportedly found out that the Russian diplomats and family members in question submitted false income reports signed by their superiors to be eligible for the benefits.
Moscow rejected the accusations and described them as provocative.