Russia Denies Allegations It Paid Militants To Kill U.S. Troops As 'Nonsense'
A bounty program on U.S. soldiers would constitute a "massive escalation" in Moscow's testy relations with Washington, says one Russia expert. A Russian lawmaker asks: "What would we get out of this?"
"Fake." "Nonsense." "Lies."
The Kremlin reacted the same way as the White House did to news reports that U.S. intelligence had allegedly found Russia offered bounties on American troops in Afghanistan.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the initial story in The New York Times demonstrated the "low intellectual abilities of U.S. intelligence propagandists." President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, called subsequent reports "hoaxes" that damage the reputation of the media that publish them.
Russian officials spend a lot of time refuting allegations of malfeasance, from
