MOSCOW. Jan 17 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed as unfounded the claims that U.S. diplomats have been harassed in Moscow.
"As to the claims that, during the tenure of President Obama, the U.S. Embassy here has been a subject of special harassment, I do not think that these claims are founded," Lavrov told a press conference in Moscow.
There have been a number of incidents which became a matter of public knowledge, and the Americans have tried to present them as a witch hunt against U.S. diplomats, he said.
"But everything turned out to be different - intelligence activity of U.S. representatives working under diplomatic cover was stopped," the minister said.
He also said that officers of the U.S. Embassy's military attache department "love to drive rented cars in Russia - these cars have no diplomatic registration plates, they have regular Russian registration, and there is less chance of being noticed."
"They have been driving in the Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Murmansk and Voronezh regions; they have been repeatedly seen in Novorossiysk, the Chechen republic and along the border with Donbas - they've literally traveled the length and breadth of that," Lavrov said.