Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova’s answer to a media question about BuzzFeed publishing confidential information on the Russian Embassy’s banking operations

Question: Would you please comment on BuzzFeed publishing yet another instalment of confidential information regarding banking transactions of the Russian Embassy in the United States?

Maria Zakharova: BuzzFeed has indeed published yet another portion of speculations regarding the banking operations of the Russian Embassy in the US as well as those of Russian diplomats. Like last November and this January, the post is about conspiracy theories surrounding routine salary transfers and money remittances to home-bound employees of our foreign mission. The aim of this stovepiping is clearly to fit it in the context of the campaign about Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 US elections.

We are again facing a situation where US media are fed confidential information on our employees’ financial transactions, which obviously happens not without direct support from the US secret services.

We have to state that Washington is actually breaching the banking secrecy regulations and disclosing personal data, which is contrary to US laws and legislative and regulatory compliance practices. Besides this, the US authorities are again demonstrating their complete inability to ensure normal working conditions for missions of foreign states. Regretfully, the non-compliance with the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations has become systematic.

We demand that the US stop violating its own national laws and international obligations, cut short the unlawful dissemination of confidential information affecting the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens, and bring to account all those guilty, including officials.