Moscow blasts US media's 'bogus speculations' that Russian envoy is rumored 'spy'

Moscow [Russia], Mar. 3 (ANI): The Kremlin proceeds from the understanding that no U.S. officials have made any claims to the effect the Russian ambassador to the United Sates, Sergey Kislyak, may have intelligence links and that all media rumors to this effect are baseless and unconfirmed, Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. According to TASS news agency, Peskov described media rumors buzzing about Kislyak's involvement in intelligence activities as "bogus media speculations that keep fanning tensions." Earlier, CNN quoted its sources as saying that US intelligence claims that Kislyak is a spy. In related development, US President Donald Trump's Attorney General Attorney General Jeff Sessions is embroiled in accusations that he misled Congress by failing to disclose pre-election meetings with Kislyak, according to CNN. Commenting on the calls to probe into the alleged contacts between members of the Trump administration and Russia, Peskov said that a highly emotional atmosphere surrounds the situation concerning the alleged contacts. "We see a highly emotional atmosphere. But before making any evaluations, we should wait for everyone to calm down and the situation to stabilize," he said adding that he did not know whether Kislyak had held any meetings with Jeff Sessions. The Kremlin spokesman drew attention to the fact that the ambassador's work generally consisted in holding as many meetings as possible with representatives of both the executive and the legislative branch of the country of the ambassador's residence. Peskov noted, the US ambassador in Moscow "has lots of contacts with deputies of the Federal Assembly of Russia and this is absolutely normal." (ANI)