American diplomats ‘spiked with date rape drugs’ by Russian secret service during conference – as US slams Moscow’s ‘harassment of officials’
The Russian minister rejected claims of drugged diplomats and blasts harassment claims "have nothing to do with reality"
THE US government has complained of an "escalating pattern of harassment by Russia" after two American diplomats allegedly had their drinks spiked with "date rape drugs" while attending a conference.
A female and male worker were targeted while attending a United Nations conference in St Petersburg, Russia, last year, when they were slipped a substance at their hotel bar, (RFERL) reported.
One of the incapacitated diplomats had to be treated at hospital but was then flown out of the country to another hospital.
US officials believe there was an attempt to cover up the incident when they were unable to get blood tests done to determine the cause of the illness.
While the person was at the clinic, the electricity suddenly went out and the staff was unable to obtain the necessary samples needed for the investigation, the official said.
US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Kennedy Trudeau said: "We are troubled, and we remain troubled, by the way our diplomatic and consular staff have been treated over the past two years.
"In particular, the harassment and surveillance of our diplomatic personnel in Moscow by security personnel and traffic police has increased significantly."
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But Russian authorities said they wee "outraged" at the drugging allegation saying there was no evidence of the alleged crime.
Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov accused the US government of making claims against Russia because of its “principled position” on the Syrian civil war.
“The US State Department has once again become a broken record regarding the purported ‘harassment’ of US diplomats in our country,” he said.
“As we have repeatedly pointed out, such assertions have nothing to do with reality and, in essence, are an attempt to divert attention from Washington’s own unseemly actions, including in relation to Russian citizens.”
He accused the diplomats of "boozing at a hotel bar" and that "they only have themselves to blame" for the incident.
According to the , "employees face intensified pressure by the Russian security services at a level not seen since the days of the Cold War".
The report comes after the White House suspended talks with Russia over ending the war in Syria following airstrikes on Aleppo reportedly kill hundreds of innocents.
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