Kremlin Considers Recent Reports About 2018 Argentine Drug Case Unworthy Of Attention

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd September, 2020) The Kremlin took note of a recent journalistic investigation about the 2018 finding of cocaine in the Russian Embassy in Argentina, but did not find it worthy of attention, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

The Dossier Center, an investigative project founded by former Yukos co-owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has recently published an article about the Argentine cocaine case.

"We did not even read it to the end. We did not find this investigation worthy of attention," Peskov said when asked whether the Kremlin had got acquainted with the report.

The official added that as far as he knows, Russian law does not require individuals to do drug tests to join civil service.

In February 2018, the security forces of Russia and Argentina thwarted a shipment of 389 kilograms (857 Pounds) of cocaine to Russia as part of a joint operation that started in 2018, when the Russian embassy in Buenos Aires found several bags with cocaine in one of its buildings.

Russian diplomats alerted Argentine police about the find.

The suspects in the cocaine case are Ishtimir Khudzhamov, Vladimir Kalmykov, Ali Abyanov and Andrei Kovalchuk, an alleged leader of the smuggling gang who was arrested in Germany and extradited to Russia in July 2018. According to the three suspects, Kovalchuk, who introduced himself either as an embassy employee or intelligence officer, "misled them" by offering them a chance to earn money.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Kovalchuk has worked neither in the Foreign Ministry nor Russian diplomatic missions abroad.