US intelligence leak can be fake, meant to mislead Moscow: Russian minister

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov claimed on Wednesday (April 12) that leaked US intelligence documents may be part of a deliberate attempt to mislead Moscow. The documents that have surfaced online reportedly contain US assessment of Ukraine war and information on other countries.

Ryabkov told Russian news agencies on Wednesday that, for now, the leak threw up many questions.

"It's probably interesting for someone to look at these documents, if they are documents at all, or maybe they are fake, maybe this is a deliberate information dump," Ryabkov was cited as saying.

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"Since the United States is a party to the (Ukraine) conflict and is in essence waging a hybrid war against us, it's possible such things are being done to mislead the enemy - that is the Russian Federation," he said.

The Kremlin said earlier on Wednesday that it did not know "like everyone else" how authentic the documents were.

Authorities in the US have launched investigation into the leaks. It is being suspected that the leaker may be an American but a Russian angle has not been completely ruled out.

Reuters reported that a former CIA officer said it is highly likely that Moscow orchestrated the leak in order to sow confusion and potential divisions between Washington and its allies.

When asked about such allegations, the Kremlin has said there's a tendency to always blame everything on Russia.

(With inputs from agencies)

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