MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd March, 2019) Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, slammed on Sunday recent UK media reports suggesting that Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Alexander Yakovenko had been expelled from the United States for being a "Soviet spy" back in the 1980s.
The Daily Mail claimed on Saturday that it had found out that Yakovenko, who was part of the Soviet Union's permanent mission at the United Nations between 1981 and 1986, was expelled from the United States "during a famous purge of agents at the height of the Cold War." Meanwhile, the Financial Times claimed on Thursday � just several days ahead of the first anniversary of the poisoning attack against former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in the UK city of Salisbury � that Russian media has been misleading the public by publishing a total of 138 contradictory accounts of the incident.
"British tabloids marked the anniversary of the Salisbury incident ... Journalists really earn their keep there: they have identified the main Soviet-Russian spy ... And it turned out to be Alexander Yakovenko ... We have got a new proof that many British journalists are poorly educated and badly brought up. Otherwise they would not have become propagandists," Zakharova posted on Facebook.
She criticized the so-called investigation into Yakovenko's spying activities, stressing that he had left New York as scheduled, when the five-year term of his work stay expired. Zakharova added that the UK media outlet had made a mistake by qualifying the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland," which Yakovenko received in 1998, as a "military medal." She said that this order was traditionally awarded to Russian diplomats. The newspaper also claimed the award was given in 1996, qualifying it as an accolade often given to spies.
"Blatant fakes are being published, which is supposed to divert attention from the key question: what happened in Salisbury on March 4, 2018? The government of [UK Prime Minister Theresa] May is keeping silence more and more persistently. And the Russian Embassy [in the United Kingdom] issues a report revealing inconsistency of the British bogus stories. And here is the silly revenge: they are trying to portray our ambassador as a spy," Zakharova added.
On March 4, 2018, Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center in Salisbury. London said it suspected Russian nationals Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov of performing the attack and of working for the Russian intelligence.
However, Moscow has repeatedly denied allegations as baseless, stressing that London rejected of its requests to cooperate in investigation. Petrov and Boshirov, in turn, denied their involvement in the attack in an interview with the RT broadcaster, saying that they had visited Salisbury to do sightseeing and actually worked in the fitness industry.
