Russian diplomats summon U.S. embassy official to complain about Internet posts allegedly designed to boost attendance at Moscow's August 3 protest

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has summoned Tim Richardson, the head of the U.S. Moscow Embassy's Political Section, to question him about a post on the embassy’s website and a tweet by the U.S. State Department’s Travel account on August 2 that showed a map of Moscow’s unpermitted march on August 3.

In both cases, the embassy advised American citizens to avoid the areas where the demonstration would take place. Unlike similar warnings from the U.S. government, however, the State Department and embassy published a map of the protest route. For comparison, the @TravelGov Twitter account shared no map, four days later, when telling U.S. citizens to avoid the site of a protest in Vienna.

In a public statement, Russian diplomats said they view the U.S. government’s Internet content as veiled advocacy for Moscow’s demonstrators, “which is an attempt to intervene in [Russia’s] domestic affairs.”