Moscow, January 17 (RHC)-- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says U.S. diplomats in Moscow have engaged in spying over the past few years and participated in opposition protests.  Lavrov said at a news conference on Russian diplomacy in 2016 on Tuesday that U.S. Embassy diplomats have "repeatedly been seen taking part in the rallies of opposition, anti-government forces, unauthorized rallies, including times when they wore disguises.”

He also stressed that U.S. intelligence agencies have been actively attempting to recruit senior Russian diplomats over the past several years.  “If we talk about recruitment techniques, we did not publicize the full statistics on that.  But most recently, in the past few years, especially during the second term of [U.S. President Barack] Obama’s administration, that unfriendly activity toward our diplomats has been growing in scale,” Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday.

Lavrov said the Russian authorities have managed to thwart several attempts by U.S. spies disguised as diplomats to gather intelligence on Russia.  “We’ve curbed the intelligence activities of U.S .officials who were working under diplomatic cover.”

Lavrov also slammed the allegations of Russian cyber attacks against the U.S. as fabricated.  U.S. officials, including outgoing President Obama, have accused the Kremlin of carrying out cyber attacks against US political organizations to help Donald Trump win the presidency.