Moscow protests to France over comments about attack on Russian official in Africa

Russia's foreign ministry in a statement on Wednesday said it had summoned the French ambassador and lodged "a strong protest" over comments about an assassination attempt on a Russian official in the Central African Republic.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna last week dismissed the claims by the head of a Russian private militia who blamed France for the attack. She called it "a good example of Russian propaganda and the fanciful imagination that sometimes characterises this propaganda."