Russian authorities are accusing the embassy of ignoring a police request for information. Russian police have launched a criminal probe after a person — thought to be an employee of the British embassy — allegedly assaulted a freelance journalist, the Russian interior ministry says. The 23-year-old journalist claimed that she had suffered “physical and moral injury” in the alleged assault, at Vnukovo airport in Moscow.
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She had been attempting to interview British diplomats who were arriving at the airport, the interior ministry said. "While the journalist was performing her professional duties, an unknown man, presumably an employee of the British Embassy in the Russian Federation, who was meeting the delegation, pushed her, causing the girl to lose her balance," the ministry said. The British embassy had ignored a police request to identify the alleged offender and provide information about his diplomatic status, it said.
Russian authorities would work to ensure that the person concerned was punished, irrespective of their status and nationality, the ministry added. Reuters has requested comment from Britain's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The announcement came a day after Britain announced it was expelling a Russian diplomat in retaliation for Moscow throwing out a British diplomat last November. Russia had accused the diplomat of spying, which London emphatically denied.
