MOSCOW (Reuters)—The Kremlin said on Monday that there was a general tendency to always blame Russia for everything when asked about accusations that Moscow may have been behind a leak of U.S. intelligence documents about a number of countries including Ukraine.
The U.S. national security community is grappling with fallout from the release of dozens of secret documents, including the impact on sensitive information-sharing within the government and ties with other countries, two U.S. officials have said.
The documents, the authenticity of which Reuters has not independently verified, include information about the war in Ukraine, including losses for both sides and other details.
Some national security experts and U.S. officials say they suspect that the leaker could be American, given the breadth of topics covered by the documents, but they do not rule out pro-Russian actors.
A former CIA officer has said it is highly likely that Moscow orchestrated the leak in order to sow confusion and potential divisions between Washington and its allies.
When asked about allegations that Russia may have been responsible, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters:
“I cannot comment on this in any way. You and I know that there is in fact a tendency to always blame everything on Russia. It is, in general, a disease.”
Russia’s Foreign Spy Service (SVR) declined comment when asked by Reuters about the U.S. leaks.
Asked about the idea that Washington had spied on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Peskov, who called the leaks “quite interesting”, said that could not be ruled out.
“But the fact that the United States has been spying on various heads of state, especially in European capitals, for a long time now, has come up repeatedly, causing various scandalous situations,” he said.
(Reporting by Reuters, Editing by Andrew Osborn)
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