Russia dismisses US charges as ‘just blabber’
Russian officials had disdainful words Saturday for a U.S. indictment that charged 13 Russians with interfering in the 2016 presidential election. Children’s stories, the plot of a preposterous Hollywood movie and “just blabber” were a few of the glib analogies they pressed into service.
The language, while dismissive, suggested that Russia feels cornered by the unrelenting allegations that the Kremlin had a role in President Donald Trump’s election. Repeated denials and hope that the intrigue would fade away have been Moscow’s strategy for maintaining the popular expectation that its ties with Washington would improve under Trump.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials have deflected the suspicion that Trump colluded with Moscow and the evidence of Russians seeding social media platforms with proTrump content with indignant cries of “Russophobia” — a default argument that blames the election scandal to an outdated, Cold War view of Russia as a land of inherently devious plotters.
“The story is straight from a Hollywood crime comedy, probably with the title ‘13 Friends of Putin’,” Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house of Russia’s parliament, said.
The indictment handed up by a federal grand jury has elements of such a cloak-and-dagger plot. It alleges that a wealthy entrepreneur, widely dubbed “Putin’s chef,” funneled money to a so-called troll farm, which sent operatives to the United States, created fictitious social media accounts and used them to spread tendentious messages.
The aim either was either to influence voters or to undermine their faith in the U.S. political system, according to court documents.
“They are just children’s statements,” Andrei Kutskikh, Putin’s envoy for international information security policy, scoffed Saturday.
Although the 37-page indictment is detailed, it makes assertions without including evidence outright. Russian officials seized on that, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“Until we see the facts, everything else is just blabber,” Lavrov said Saturday to an international audience at the Munich security conference. I’m sorry for this expression.”
At the same conference, the former Russian ambassador to Washington, Sergei Kislyak reprised Moscow’s frequent contention that the angle of alleged TrumpRussia collusion was fabricated for political ends inside the Beltway.
“Whatever allegations are being mounted against us are simply fantasies that are being used for political reasons in the United States in the fight between the different sides of the political divide that is haunting the United States right now,” Lavrov said.
The internal dogfight explanation is a way for Russians to explain away their disappointment that Washington-Moscow relations have not improved under Trump, despite his promises to do so and his open admiration of Putin.
Russian officials had high hopes that Trump would move to abandon or reduce the sanctions that the United States imposed for Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Instead, Trump approved selling lethal weapons to Ukraine for the fight against the rebels and he appointed a Russia hawk as Washington’s envoy for the Ukrainian peace process. His United Nations ambassador, Nikki Haley, declared that the Crimea sanctions wouldn’t be lifted unless the peninsula is returned to Ukraine.