Russia Says U.S. Ambassador McFaul’s Statements ‘Unprofessional’

Remarks by Michael McFaul, the U.S. ambassador, during a May 25 talk at the Moscow Higher School of Economics were “unprofessional” and went “far beyond the limits of diplomatic etiquette,” the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on its website.

In the lecture, McFaul accused Russia of bribing Kyrgyzstan in 2009 to push the local government to close down the U.S. military airbase in the Manas airport in Bishkek.

In January, Andrei Isayev, a senior lawmaker in Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s party, accused McFaul of seeking to foment revolution in Russia by hosting opposition activists.

In response to the statement, McFaul said in a Twitter message he is “still learning the craft of speaking more diplomatically.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Ksenia Galouchko in Moscow at kgalouchko1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net