“On June 17 we expelled two Russian officials from the United States to respond to this attack,” said spokesperson John Kirby.
Kirby said little else to clarify the U.S. response to the incident, which came after a Russian security guard stationed outside the U.S. embassy on June 6 attacked a U.S. diplomat entering the U.S. compound.
The Russian guard tackled and injured the American after the diplomat showed him his embassy badge, State Department officials told Radio Liberty, a news site funded by Congress.
Kirby says the attack was "unprovoked and it endangered the safety of our employee," according to the Associated Press.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a different version of what happened. It said the American was a CIA agent who refused to provide his identification documents, and then attacked the Russian guard, not vice versa.
"Instead of letting the (Russian) officer see his ID, the man hit him with an elbow in the face than (sic) pushed him away and fled to the embassy,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, according to Russian state-owned media site RT.
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