Media outlet Mediazona sues Foreign Ministry for declining to comment on meetings of Russia’s Ambassador to the United States

On April 7, media outlet Mediazona filed a lawsuit against Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for refusing to provide information. Editor-in-chief Sergei Smirnov said that the foreign ministry refused to comment on the meetings of Sergei Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States. Mediazona inquired about Kislyak’s meetings with Senator Jeff Sessions, who now holds the post of U.S. Attorney General, as well as with President Donald Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner. The outlet also inquired about contacts any contacts that former head of Trump’s campaign team Paul Manafort may have had with the Russians.

At first, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova refused to respond to Mediazona’s request. Then the outlet sent a letter by post and received a response that the information could not “be made public without the consent of all participants.”

Mediazona states that such a response stands in violation of Russia’s media law, under which only information that constitutes a state, commercial, or other protected secret can be withheld. The media outlet asked the court to oblige the Foreign Affairs Ministry to give a meaningful response to its request.

Upon Meduza’s request for a comment on the lawsuit, Zakharova stated the following: “[Mediazona’s employees] are sitting there and publicizing themselves. Let them tell you how many times and in what form the Foreign Affairs Ministry sent them responses.”

In early March, 2017, it became known that during a Senate hearing where he was allegedly appointed Attorney General, Jeff Sessions had kept silent about his meetings with Sergei Kislyak. Sessions said that he had met with the Russian ambassador only in his capacity as a senator and not as a future member of the Trump team.