RUSSIAN REPLY TO SPY CHARGES NO LAUGHING MATTER
RUSSIA’S ambassador has made jokes throughout an hour-long press conference where he denied having spies in Australia.
In the ageing Russian Embassy in Canberra, Grigory Logvinov said the two diplomats Australia was expelling weren’t intelligence agents.
“They are absolutely legal, career diplomats,” he said.
Mr Logvinov rejected any suggestions there were Russian spies working in his embassy. Asked how many would be left in Australia after the two “undeclared intelligence agents” were expelled, he replied: “Zero minus zero is still zero.”
The jovial ambassador continued to crack gags throughout an hour-long grilling, that at times got heated. He alleged a grand conspiracy between Western nations to discredit Russia.
“If the West would follow this line, I’m afraid we will be deeply in a Cold War situation,” he said.
Mr Logvinov demanded to see evidence from Britain that Russia was behind the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, saying Mr Skripal was “of no interest to Russia any more”.