Russia Denies Allegations It Paid Militants To Kill U.S. Troops As 'Nonsense'
July 8, 202012:23 PM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
Noorullah Shirzada/AFP via Getty Images
"Fake." "Nonsense." "Lies."
The Kremlin reacted the same way the White House did to news reports that U.S. intelligence had allegedly found Russia offered bounties on American troops in Afghanistan.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the initial story in The New York Times demonstrated the "low intellectual abilities of U.S. intelligence propagandists." President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, called subsequent reports "hoaxes" that damage the reputation of the media that publish them.
Russian officials spend a lot of time refuting allegations of malfeasance, from the poisoning of a former Russian spy in England to election interference in the United States. That Russian military intelligence may have paid bounties for killing U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan appears to be just the latest accusation Moscow has categorically denied.
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/08/888881641/russia-denies-allegations-it-paid-militants-to-kill-u-s-troops-as-nonsense
