Moscow denies the publication of The New York Times about the essence of the conversation between the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the Taliban, the Russian Foreign Minister asked the US to hand over evidence of "collusion" with the Taliban, there were not any, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
"In The New York Times, it was mentioned that during a telephone conversation on July 13, the US Secretary of State Pompeo warned the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov about the consequences of possible ties between Russian intelligence services and the Taliban against the US military in Afghanistan. All this is presented as a fact, " Zakharova said at a briefing.
According to her, during a telephone conversation on July 13 between Lavrov and Pompeo, "the American side did raise the issue of some kind of collusion between the Russian special services and the Taliban."
"The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry described such statements as "unfair speculation that has nothing to do with the real state of affairs. He also asked to hand over the evidence available to Washington, which...was not provided, " the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry added.
The New York Times, citing anonymous US intelligence officials, published an article on June 26 claiming that Russian military intelligence offered rewards to Taliban-linked militants for attacks on US soldiers in Afghanistan and that US President Donald Trump was informed of this. No evidence was provided.
The Russian Embassy in the United States demanded that the country's authorities respond adequately to threats that come to diplomats because of news about Russia and Afghanistan. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the media reports fake. Trump called the article "ordered fudge". The White house, the Pentagon and US intelligence said that there was no confirmation of the reports at the moment and that Trump was not informed about them.
The Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, commenting on The New York Times article about Russia's "collusion" with the Taliban, said that these claims were false. When asked by reporters whether Trump somehow discussed this topic with Vladimir Putin during this year, Peskov replied in the negative.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from RIA Novosti