The Kremlin is following the investigation into US President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and an associate and hopes that these processes will not promote the escalation of “Russophobic” hysteria, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.
On Monday, Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates were indicted for money laundering and working as unregistered foreign agents for the Ukraine government, among other criminal counts.
The indictment represents the first charges to emanate from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged Russian election meddling.
“Of course we are following this ongoing process in the United States. This is, of course, a process that is a domestic affair of our U.S. partners,” Peskov told reporters.
The Kremlin spokesman stressed that Russia was “not featured in the charges,” and “would not like to be involved in any way in these processes.”
“We would of course prefer that these processes do not promote the escalation of the Russophobic hysteria which is off the charts as it is,” Peskov added.
Peskov said that accusations as part of internal U.S. processes do not concern Russia.
“Any accusations that are being made in the framework of internal American investigations to American citizens do not concern us, it’s an internal affair of America.
“We are watching with interest. The main thing is that this should not concern our citizens, because, certainly, we will always protect the interests of our citizens,” Peskov told reporters.