Russian President Vladimir Putin’s desire to question and prosecute a former U.S. ambassador and other American officials is “absurd,” a State Department official said Wednesday.
“The overall assertions that have come out of the Russian government are absolutely absurd,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. “The fact that they want to question 11 American citizens and the assertions that the Russian government is making about those American citizens — we do not stand by those assertions that the Russian government makes.”
Putin accused U.S. officials of participating in a tax fraud scheme with an American-born investor who operated in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, is one of the Russian prosecutor-general’s specific targets; so are multiple officials from the National Security Agency.
“They never paid any taxes, neither in Russia nor in the United States, and yet the money escaped the country,” Putin said in Helsinki. “So we have a solid reason to believe that some intelligence officers accompanied and guided these transactions.”
The allegations arise out of the case of Bill Browder, who ran the Hermitage investment fund in Russia. His clashes with the Russian government culminated in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, an accountant who accused government officials of using Browder’s company to carry out a $230 million tax fraud. Magnitsky was arrested; after he died in prison, Russian officials tried and convicted him posthumously for the fraud, and convicted Browder on absentia.
“Russian assertions are absolutely absurd,” Nauert said.
Putin asked Trump for the opportunity to question McFaul and other officials, whom he accused additionally of funneling some of the money to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign, in exchange for allowing special counsel Robert Mueller to attend a questioning of the Russian military intelligence officers accused of carrying out the 2016 election interference.
“The president’s going to meet with his team and we’ll let you know when we have an announcement on that,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders replied when asked Wednesday about the offer. “There was some conversation about it, but there wasn’t a commitment made on behalf of the United States and the president will work with his team and we’ll let you know if there’s an announcement on that front.”
