Top Kremlin diplomat calls US uproar over Russia ties a ‘witch hunt’

RUSSIA’S foreign minister pushed back Friday at assertions that his country’s US ambassador is a spy, and echoed US President Donald Trump’s contention that the controversy over contacts between Kremlin officials and Trump’s campaign is “a witch hunt.”

“The ambassadors are appointed in order to maintain relationships,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow.

“They are maintained by holding meetings, talks and establishing contacts with officials from both executive and legislative branches of power. I can only quote what the media said today — this all looks like a witch hunt.”

Citing current and former senior US government officials CNN reported that Kislyak is considered by US intelligence to be one of Russia’s top spies and spy recruiters in Washington.

But Russia’s Foreign Ministry has angrily rejected allegations that its top diplomat in Washington is a spy amid controversy over meetings he held with US Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

CNN reports that Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Thursday insisted Kislyak was “a well-known, world-class diplomat.”

“He was deputy minister of foreign affairs in Russia, who has communicated with American colleagues for decades in different fields, and CNN accused him of being a Russian spy … of recruiting? Oh my God!”