Image by Matthew Boyle via Flickr
From ABC News:
"Kyle Hatcher has done nothing wrong," said Ambassador Beyrle. "Clearly the video we saw was a montage of lot of different clips, some of them which are clearly fabricated," he told ABC News. "We had our security office back in Washington take a look at that and they are convinced Kyle has done nothing wrong. I have full confidence in him and he is going to continue his work here at the embassy."
The goal of the Russian government, Beyrle believes, is to "smear him in the eyes of his contacts."
ABC News also reports that according to a senior State Department official, the most disturbing element of the video may be the authentic elements that precede the fraudulent portion. According to this official, the tape begins with surveillance video of Hatcher walking Moscow streets some five years ago. "That portion of the tape is real," the official said. Hatcher, according to the official, traveled to Moscow as a tourist years before he worked for the U.S. government.
There have been lots of speculations online that this was the work of FSB, Russia's domestic and counter intelligence agency. In July FCO’s Deputy CG in Ekaterinburg was caught in a similar trap and subsequently resigned.
And here I thought our relationship with Moscow had been reset.
Come here to this gate! Mr. Putin, er sorry, Mr. Medvedev, close this gate! Make these rogues and honeytrappers go party elsewhere!
Read the whole thing here. News item also made it to the Department's daily press brief, read it here.
Read the previous coverage of this here. BTW, if you read Russian, check out Ambassador John Beyrle's blog here.
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