Russia: News about Khashoggi’s death inflated by political machinations

The Russian Foreign Ministry commented on the news that Moscow knew what happened to the dead Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and provided information to Turkey, saying that the issue was exaggerated by a huge amount of intrigues and fabrications.

“Our country has announced from the first day that it is necessary to take one step: to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation,” ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news conference on Thursday.

In response to a request to comment on social networking sites and some media outlets that Russian intelligence knew what had happened and provided information to Turkish intelligence, she said: “It is frightening that this tragedy is magnified with so much political machinations and fabrications that we see today”.

Zakharova stressed that there were “a huge number of leaks” about the circumstances of the killing of the Saudi journalist despite the lack of official data on the issue.

The spokeswoman stressed the need not to be dragged behind these leaks, noting that Russia will issue its comments on Khashoggi only after the parties concerned conclude their official investigations into the incident