A crude provocation compiled by a fugitive – Lavrov on Trump dossier

Russian foreign minister dismisses dossier containing allegations that US president-elect had been compromised by Moscow.

Russia’s foreign minister has angrily dismissed unverified claims published last week about links between Moscow and the US president-elect, Donald Trump, while expressing hope for productive engagement with the new administration over Syria and international security.

Speaking at his annual press conference, Sergei Lavrov dismissed the dossier compiled by the former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele as a “crude provocation” and referred to Steele as a “fugitive crook from MI6”.

The dossier, which was published online by Buzzfeed last week, investigated Trump’s alleged ties with Russia and claimed he had potentially been compromised by the Russians during trips to Moscow. Steele compiled it as research for Trump’s opponents during the US election campaign.

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The former MI6 agent has been described by colleagues as well-sourced and credible, though it is believed he did not travel to Russia to conduct the research. Many analysts have questioned the plausibility of a western intelligence operative being able to source so many explosive allegations. However, the dossier has added to unease about the praise showered on Vladimir Putin by Trump, the links to Russia among many in his entourage, and the apparent activities of Russian hackers during the election campaign.

US intelligence agencies believe Russian military intelligence hacked the Democratic party’s servers during the election campaign and passed the emails to WikiLeaks, possibly using an intermediary. Lavrov denied on Tuesday that Russian hackers had targeted the US election or planned to target European elections in future.

“It’s not for me to prove any of this is false,” the foreign minister said. “As far as I know there is a presumption of innocence, so it’s up to you to prove it’s true.”

A report issued by US intelligence agencies said they had “high confidence” that Russian military intelligence was behind the hacking, but provided no evidence in the unclassified version.

Russia, said Lavrov, stands for “pragmatism and national interests understood in a sensible way, and not messianic foreign policy and the attempt to spread values across the world”. He expressed hope that under Trump, US foreign policy would move closer towards Russia’s ideal, and noted that in prioritising domestic business interests and the fight against terrorism, Trump’s stated foreign policy priorities were “exactly what Putin sees as the priorities for Russian foreign policy”.

However, he denied reports that a summit between Trump and Putin was scheduled to take place in his first weeks as US president, potentially in Reykjavik, Iceland. “It is not true, and there has been no contact to discuss such plans,” said Lavrov.

The foreign minister did confirm that officials from the Trump administration had been invited to participate in Syria peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, next week, and said Russia wanted to work with the new US government on global issues.

One of the last acts of Barack Obama’s administration with regards to Russia was to expel 35 of its diplomats from the US in response to the hacking allegations. Putin said he would not retaliate as he hoped for better relations with a Trump White House, leading the president-elect to call Putin “very smart”.

Previously, US officials have complained about an unprecedented level of harassment from Russian authorities, including home break-ins, being followed and intimidation.

Lavrov denied this on Tuesday, and said US spies were using diplomatic cover for activity within Russia, employing wigs, fake eyebrows and occasionally cross-dressing in their attempts to avoid detection. Lavrov claimed US diplomats in disguise had been spotted at opposition protests and that they used hire cars, rather than diplomatic vehicles, to drive around the country in the hope of avoiding detection.

He also claimed American counterintelligence had been more active in recent years in its attempts to recruit Russian diplomats based in the US as double agents. He alleged that one diplomat had been approached with an attempt to turn him while picking up medicines from a doctor’s surgery, while another had $10,000 (£8,200) in cash placed in his car by US agents as an offer to begin cooperation.