US expresses concern over harassment of its diplomat in Russia

The US has expressed concern over harassment of its diplomats in Russia, calling it "completely unacceptable", after one of its staff was allegedly attacked by a Russian security personnel in Moscow last month.
The issue has been raised at the highest level by Secretary of State John Kerry with his Russian counterpart, the State Department Spokesman John Kirby told reporters at his daily news conference.
"Secretary Kerry has raised our concerns about an incident involving an accredited US diplomat that occurred outside our embassy in Moscow," Kirby said.
The call between Kerry and his Russian counterpart took place yesterday, he said.

A video on Russian television station NTV is in circulation in this regard.
The video shows the diplomat attempting to enter the US Embassy in Moscow when he was tackled by the Russian FSB guard. The diplomat suffered a 'broken injury' but was able to struggle his way into the embassy compound, the Washington Post reported.

Kirby said he is not in a position to verify the authenticity of the video.
"I don't know the source of it, so I'm not in a position to verify it. I'm also not in a position to question its authenticity," he said.
"While I'm not going to speak to the specifics of any particular incident or various incidents that have occurred, I will state again that we are extremely troubled by the way our employees have been treated over the past couple of years, and we have raised those concerns at the highest levels," Kirby said.

"Harassment and surveillance of our diplomatic personnel in Moscow by security personnel and by traffic police have increased significantly and we find this absolutely unacceptable," he said in response to a question.
Russia has alleged that the diplomat was a spy.
"It is known that the diplomat is actually a CIA agent. That night he was in disguise, returning after an intelligence operation," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying.