Russia accuses USA of violating bank secrecy

Russian Foreign Ministry accused the U.S. of violating bank secrecy and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The accusations came in light of the incident with insurance fraud, of which US officials accused Russian diplomats.

"The U.S. authorities have violated several provisions of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations, as well as just ordinary rules of diplomatic courtesy, not to mention the international law governing the actions of authorities in matters relating to the secrecy of bank transfers, correspondence and so on," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told journalists.

According to him, U.S. officials used data obtained from the interception of bank transfers as evidence to prove illegal activities of several Russian diplomats.

Ryabkov said that Russia would prefer "this debate could start earlier and be conducted in line with a normal diplomatic dialogue."

He also assured that Moscow did not intend to retaliate against U.S. diplomats against the background of the most recent scandal.