MOSCOW, April 19. /TASS/: The conversation with the US, British and Canadian ambassadors summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday took a harsh tone, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
"They were summoned to the Foreign Ministry and everything was explained to them, in a tough tone, without any desire to soften things or soft-pedal the situation," the diplomat told Radio Sputnik on Wednesday.
Zakharova stressed that, if Western diplomats continue to act this way, such behavior would be deemed inconsistent with their declared status.
On Tuesday, the US, UK and Canadian ambassadors to Moscow were summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry over meddling in Russian affairs and activities incompatible with their diplomatic status.
On Monday, Zakharova slammed the statements made by the UK, US and Canadian ambassadors following the sentencing of journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza (designated as a foreign agent) as constituting direct meddling in Russia’s internal affairs. The diplomat said that Moscow regarded UK Ambassador Deborah Bronnert’s remarks, which she made following the sentencing of Kara-Murza, as unacceptable and warned London against politicizing international human rights issues. Zakharova also stated that the demands of the US and Canadian ambassadors to free Kara-Murza were "the height of cynicism" at a time when their home countries were shamelessly violating human rights and persecuting dissenters.
The Moscow City Court on Monday sentenced Kara-Murza to 25 years in a maximum-security prison and a fine of 400,000 rubles ($4,880), banned him from engaging in journalism for seven years, and ruled that his freedom be limited for six months after his release from incarceration. According to the court ruling, he was found guilty of crimes stipulated under Part 2, Article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code (RCC) ("Public Dissemination of Knowingly False Information About the Deployment of the Russian Armed Forces"), Part 1, Article 284.1 of the RCC ("Execution of Activities of a Foreign or International Organization Whose Activity Has Been Declared Undesirable on the Territory of the Russian Federation"), and Article 275 of the RCC ("High Treason").
